Impervius AI
by Gaara's Himitsu
Summary: Neji is a fighter pilot for the Aerilen Space Station. He graduated early and is among the best pilots on the ship. Everyone thinks he is perfect and normal, but he has a secret. He is developing odd feelings toward his jet's computer, an AI named Gaara
1. The Red One

**Chapter 1: The Red One**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke, slight TemariXShikamaru, one-sided SakuraXSasuke

Rating: M, for sexual content and language

_Note: I do not own Naruto, but I do write original stories. _

* * *

"God, you two are hopeless!"

Sakura sighed, throwing her hands up in the air and nearly knocking over the metal cup full her ever present coffee.

"All you do is talk about your jet Neji, and don't even get me started on the way you talk about your cat Sasuke. It's weird. Why can't you be normal men, talk about girls and getting drunk or something?"

"What's wrong with my cat! I love him, is that so hard to grasp?"

Sasuke asked, switching a few dials on his water bottle to produce milk instead of the orange juice he'd been drinking. Naruto didn't like drinking from the bottle because it added a sort of metallic taste to everything and Sasuke didn't think it was good for his health either, so he had taken to fixing that by pouring it into a plastic container for him ahead of time. Sasuke was in love with the way his little yellow cat would lick his fingers as his way of thanking the raven. Sasuke admittedly thought it was adorable. Naruto had the cutest little pink tongue.

"It is, when all you do is play with him in your lab and never get out. Come on, I mean, wouldn't you prefer a real person. Someone like me?"

"No."

Sasuke was a very blunt and honest person. He usually took to telling Sakura the way things really worked, which normally meant he'd crush her flirting attempts and completely ignore her.

"Look at her face Sasuke! I think you broke something again."

"Shut up Neji! This has nothing to do with you!"

Neji held back a laugh, shoving his fork firmly in his mouth to keep himself from making things worse. Sakura always got so upset over nothing. At least to Neji it was nothing. Sasuke was his best friend and if he wanted, he should be able to spend time with his cat. The cat that had once actually been his boyfriend, until he'd let the former blonde drink something sitting around in his lab without a label. Neji would never forget that. It was one of those screw ups you reminded your friends about for the rest of their lives. It just couldn't be helped.

"So, speaking of Naruto, have you found anything to turn him back yet?"

"What? Oh, no. Not yet."

Neji watched Sasuke's usually cool manner fall into what the Uchiha would never admit, was a pout, bordering on brooding depression.

"They've got me working on some new machine that's supposed to be able to regenerate a body from something as small as a hair. It's taking up all my free time and it doesn't even work right. The last test brought back a bloody arm with little bits of skin still stuck to it in random places."

Neji shuddered, trying not to picture the raven's all too descriptive explanation.

"But, it's been a year Sasuke. What if he gets stuck like that and never changes back?"

Sasuke looked as though he'd never thought about that. And probably never would have.

"Oh god! Can that happen?"

The horrified look on his face was priceless. Neji just couldn't help torturing the other man. Like he knew anything about science and medicine. That was Sasuke's job, he was just a pilot.

"I think I might be sick!"

Neji and Sakura watched the scatter brained raven jump up from the cafeteria table and dash out of the room like the world was about to end and aliens were invading trying to help it along, nearly losing a few of the papers hanging out of his bag. Neji couldn't help smiling to himself as he got up much more slowly, and tossed his fork into a bin next to the dematerializing trash can marked 'perishables'. Everything else he forgot about, leaving it to sit on top of the can as he walked out the double glass doors of the cafeteria that lead out into the main hall.

Neji walked slowly down the hall watching a thermometer click by as he passed the pressurized glass windows along the wall. The stars had always looked so beautiful when he was a little boy, staring up at them from his parent's apartment in downtown Tokyo. But he'd been fooled. There was so much more to them when you actually lived among them.

He and Sakura were part of a large group of pilots that flew fighter jets for the Aerilen Space Station. Their team was made up of Neji himself, Sakura and their Captain Shikamaru, who was in charge of the other thirty-four three man cells as well. Each team had different jobs when there wasn't some inter-galactic battle going on. Neji was good, he had known that much when they'd placed him with the other two best flyers in the entire fleet, but he hadn't known what that entailed. When any of the other stations decided to pick fights, they were meant to be right up in front, giving them hell right back. It also meant that they did escorts, paperwork, strategic planning, anything else that Neji was asked to do, had to be done. It'd been that way since he'd turned ten and graduated from the space station's flight training academy. Always busy.

Sasuke had been there from the beginning too and for much the same reason Neji was. Only he wasn't a fighter. Each station had so many different jobs that Neji had wondered just how they'd managed to find enough orphans to fill all the spaces. If you hadn't been an orphan when you were taken to one of the stations, then you'd been born there, and your parents were the orphans. That's just the way it seemed to be. It was like no one needed them anymore so here they were, secretly working to protect those same people who knew nothing about them and probably couldn't give a flying fuck.

There was so much going on every second of every day. Nothing stopped working and for some reason everything seemed to be on a 24 hour time schedule. Yet, he always managed to find more free time then he could handle. He wasn't sure he liked it that way. Moving was good for him, it gave him something to do.

Which was why it was so easy for Neji to accept that you ate when you were told, or you'd go hungry for the next six hours. Things like, sleeping when your watch told you to, or you'd go the next twelve hours without being able to. The rest of the time was spent running scans to make sure the earth still spun. Or so Neji thought. Really, all he knew was that he was to do his job and not ask questions about anything else that didn't relate. He rarely ever saw any other part of the ship, other than the jet hanger, the living quarters, and Sasuke's lab. The last one had been a pure accident too. He'd wandered in one day when he'd been looking for the showers.

Everything he did day to day was distinctly habit. Just like everyone else. He didn't see himself as anything different or unusual, but Sakura made sure to remind him on a daily basis that he was.

"Why, when you have an entire 45 minute lunch break, do you always eat at light speed and then spend the rest of your time in your jet? Don't you spend enough time there already?"

"If you feel the need to complain, than why do you keep following me back every day."

"I just think you need a little social interaction is all."

"I talk, just not with you, and I have friends."

"Yes, friends who are as deranged as you are, and you talk to your plane."

"Gaara is more than my plane."

"Oh? Is he your lover now?"

"Shut up! That's not something you should joke about."

"Bet you wish he was! But let's face it, he's a computer and why would he be interested in YOU anyway? Why you are the only one to actually have an Artificial Intelligence as your plane's computer though, is beyond me. Maybe her Supreme Leader, Lady Tsunade thinks you need a babysitter. Not that I'd blame her…"

This was where Neji's ears turned off mechanically. He couldn't remember a time he'd actually heard Sakura NOT talking for more than a minute.

Neji's brow furrowed in worry as he wandered into the jet hanger, the sliding silver doors sealing the room closed behind him, closing off Sakura's babbling as they closed on her face. The repair guy, his friend Kiba, was supposed to be coming in today to make sure his jet hadn't gotten dented. Earlier that morning, his team had been out tracking down stray temperature tracers. They'd found them, naturally, but for some reason they exploded on contact due to some sort of disturbance glitch. Needless to say one of them had exploded over his jet. Gaara had given him an earful about being careless. Which, he sort of had been. Having a cute redhead leaning against the corner of his window monitor was not as easy for Neji to deal with as people thought it was.

The long haired brunette took the stairs two at a time and made his way down to the end of one of the suspended metal bridges that spider webbed throughout the hanger. His jet was at the end of the row on the second landing. The rest of the jets had been painted various shades of greens and blues, some were silver, and Shikamaru was really the only other one that came close to being different with a jet black, but Neji's was different.

His was the red one.

It stuck out among all the others which was something Neji liked about it. It was different, beautiful, built off of an older model so it was reliable, and it was home to him. He walked up and noticed the top of Kiba's head as the other man climbed out of the hatch over the main frame on the top of the plane.

"Was he hurt? Was he dented? Did I scratch the paint?"

Neji's mouth immediately started spewing words at 90 miles an hour. He was worried, but this was actually a record for him, considering how much more annoying he'd been the last time he'd had to talk to Kiba. It wasn't that he didn't like talking to the boy, just whenever he did, it was usually about fixing something he'd broken while being stupid.

"Don't worry Nej. He's fine, no dents or scratches. The force was enough to shake the two of you, but not enough to damage anything. Everything's fine, Gaara's pretty good about making sure you don't wreck anything too badly."

"Yeah well, he does act like my mother."

Neji leaned up against the side of the jet, relaxing, and immediately felt a shock run up his spine, making him jump.

"Ow! What the hell?"

Kiba just laughed, patting Neji on the shoulder and wandering off to look at another jet. Gaara's temper toward Neji was known throughout the hanger and Kiba really didn't want to get in the way, especially when Neji was about to get in trouble. That's what made it all the more fun.

Neji lingered outside the open hatch until Kiba was gone, wondering how long he could make the redhead wait before he had to go in.

"Good luck Romeo, better not keep Juliet waiting! He might make you sleep on the couch tonight."

Neji looked over his shoulder at the jet next to his and pulled out his heat gun, zapping the door handle of Sakura's plane so she'd have to wait for it to cool down before she could open it without burning her precious hands.

"Asshole."

"Love you too, Cherry!"

Neji grinned, climbing through the hatch and leaving it open to find a smirking redhead waiting for him on his window monitor.

"Juliet."

"Romeo."

Neji smiled, hearing the cute, yet slightly rough tenor voice coming from the computer.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

"Perhaps, I quite enjoyed watching you piss off the princess."

"All for you."

Neji said deeply, winking.

"So noble of you, I think I'd have a heart attack. Well, if it were possible."

"I wish you wouldn't. It'd scare the hell out of me and you know it. So no jokes."

"I do know this, I just like getting that winner's high from hearing you say you care."

"You know I do. You little shit."

Neji smiled and ran his hand over the part of the monitor that showed Gaara's cheek, before passing the screen completely and collapsing into his high backed computer chair bolted to the middle of the floor. Turning just in time to see the small blush gracing his AI's face, but pretending he hadn't.

Truth was, no matter how much his friends joked, they didn't really understand why he spent every moment he could in his plane. They could joke all they wanted about him and Gaara, or about his social issues. In reality, Neji cared far more for Gaara than he was willing to admit. Even when he made crude remarks and tested the boy's patients by calling him names. Neither of them really cared about all that.

Computer or not, Neji would jump off a bridge, or more likely the ship, for that boy.

He couldn't admit it just yet, but Neji was starting to think he cared a little more than any normal man should about his plane.

But every thought he had had in the past 5 years, had been about Gaara. Since the day Lady Tsunade had said they'd be flying together and had introduced them when he was 14.

At first things had been normal between them, he'd tease Gaara just to get him mad. But eventually it became more than just the teasing and sharp conversations. Neji couldn't say when, but if asked, both would probably have admitted that there was, indeed a significant difference.

Neji just didn't understand what it was yet.

He was smart and clever, but certainly not that perceptive.

* * *

Thank you to everyone who's reading this.... It's one of my new fics... so let me know if it catches your interest and I'll continue it... Thanks again!


	2. Questions

**Chapter 2: Questions**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

* * *

Previously on Impervius AI

Neji held back a laugh, shoving his fork firmly in his mouth to keep himself from making things worse. Sakura always got so upset over nothing. At least to Neji it was nothing. Sasuke was his best friend and if he wanted, he should be able to spend time with his cat. The cat that had once actually been his boyfriend, until he'd let the former blonde drink something sitting around in his lab without a label. Neji would never forget that. It was one of those screw ups you reminded your friends about for the rest of their lives. It just couldn't be helped.

"So, speaking of Naruto, have you found anything to turn him back yet?"

"What? Oh, no. Not yet."

Neji watched Sasuke's usually cool manner fall into what the Uchiha would never admit, was a pout, bordering on brooding depression.

"They've got me working on some new machine that's supposed to be able to regenerate a body from something as small as a hair. It's taking up all my free time and it doesn't even work right. The last test brought back a bloody arm with little bits of skin still stuck to it in random places."

Neji shuddered, trying not to picture the raven's all too descriptive explanation.

"But, it's been a year Sasuke. What if he gets stuck like that and never changes back?"

Sasuke looked as though he'd never thought about that. And probably never would have.

"Oh god! Can that happen?"

The horrified look on his face was priceless. Neji just couldn't help torturing the other man. Like he knew anything about science and medicine. That was Sasuke's job, he was just a pilot.

"I think I might be sick!"

-----

"Why, when you have an entire 45 minute lunch break, do you always eat at light speed and then spend the rest of your time in your jet? Don't you spend enough time there already?"

"If you feel the need to complain, than why do you keep following me back every day."

"I just think you need a little social interaction is all."

"I talk, just not with you, and I have friends."

"Yes, friends who are as deranged as you are, and you talk to your plane."

"Gaara is more than my plane."

"Oh? Is he your lover now?"

"Shut up! That's not something you should joke about."

"Bet you wish he was! But let's face it, he's a computer and why would he be interested in YOU anyway? Why you are the only one to actually have an Artificial Intelligence as your plane's computer though, is beyond me. Maybe her Supreme Leader, Lady Tsunade thinks you need a babysitter. Not that I'd blame her…"

-----

"Good luck Romeo, better not keep Juliet waiting! He might make you sleep on the couch tonight."

Neji looked over his shoulder at the jet next to his and pulled out his heat gun, zapping the door handle of Sakura's plane so she'd have to wait for it to cool down before she could open it without burning her precious hands.

"Asshole."

"Love you too, Cherry!"

Neji grinned, climbing through the hatch and leaving it open to find a smirking redhead waiting for him on his window monitor.

"Juliet."

"Romeo."

**-Questions-**

Gaara sat quietly humming to himself, watching Neji type away on his lap top. He'd been sitting there for a good ten minutes, being as patient as possible, but today was Wednesday. Gaara didn't like to be kept waiting on Wednesdays. Neji should have known that by now.

Feeling like he'd waited long enough, because ten minutes really was too long, Gaara disconnected the power to the outlets inside the jet, hoping for a little bit of the long haired brunette's attention.

"Gaara…"

"Yes?"

"Turn it back on."

"I don't know what your talking about."

"Bull shit. You disconnected the power, what is it you wanted?"

"Well, it's Wednesday."

"And?"

"Sometimes on Wednesdays they give out cherries at lunch! You know that. Don't tell me you forgot again."

"Then I won't."

"Bastard."

Gaara crossed his arms on the monitor and glared daggers at the other boy. Sending little spurts of electricity up through the cord and into Neji's keyboard. Watching with satisfaction as the boy's hands jumped away from the keys, giving Gaara a look that clearly stated, 'If you weren't my jet, I'd slap you."

"How would you know that there were cherries on the menu for today?"

Gaara looked off at the edge of the screen, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the multi colored buttons dotting the walls.

"Gaara…"

"I stole a copy of the menu! I get updates everyday…"

"Your not supposed to do that."

"And?"

"Lady Tsunade might get angry."

"She'll never know. I back hacked the system through so many different drives not even a zip virus could follow me. The computer systems are fine!"

"They better be, Juliet."

Gaara glanced suspiciously back at the boy, who was now smirking back at him from the high backed chair bolted down in the center of the room. He didn't seem angry at all anymore, merely amused with something.

"What?"

"I didn't forget the cherries."

"What!? You are a bastard."

"Does that mean I can have them then?"

"NOO!! I'm sorry…"

"Good boy."

Gaara would have fried and broken the bolts holding Neji's chair up for that, but the boy was smart and new exactly when to hold up the small cup of red fruit, granting him safety from Gaara's wrath.

Transfixed and horribly excited, Gaara pressed his hands up against the monitor in hopes of getting a better look at his favorite food. He watched happily as Neji scanned the fruit into his computer, which was working again, and waited for the codes to materialize on the screen. Eventually he saw Neji hit a few buttons and look up at him.

That was the cue for him to start looking for said materializing fruit.

Gaara looked around and waited, looking for that special ripple in the pixels on the screen that came before the actual, edible image did.

And there it was, in the top left corner.

A smile spread over both boy's faces as Gaara plucked the cherries down and began eating them hungrily. They didn't give him nourishment and he didn't actually need them, but there was something about the flavor and the look of the things that he just loved.

"You never did tell me what they taste like."

"Well, they don't taste real. But then again, how can they when you scan them through a computer? They taste like… artificial cherry flavored cough drops, pure sugar. I like them, but I can't help wondering what real ones might taste like."

Gaara went quiet.

"I hope you'll be able to try them one day."

"Yeah, it's a dream. But dreams are for the silly. You know as well as I do that that's never going to happen."

"Miracles do happen Gaara."

"Not those kind. Miracles won't give me a body Neji. I understand that."

Neji and Gaara remained quiet for the next few minutes. Neji knew better than to push the redhead. He truly believed that Gaara could, in time, get a body. He just wasn't sure how, and without proof, it was hard for anyone to believe the chances were good enough.

Neji wasn't sure what to say.

So several minutes turned into half an hour before the silence was broken by a beeping coming through from the overhead speakers in the hanger. Neji ducked out of the jet and leaned against the frame so he could listen.

"Lady Tsunade needs the following people in her office immediately: Hyuuga Neji, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru, Nara Temari, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto …."

The message was repeated again in the same cool, female voice of the recording, but Neji didn't wait. He told Gaara he'd be back to tell him what was going on, and quickly left the hanger. In search of the door leading to Lady Tsunade's office.

Twenty minutes later, everyone was gathered around Tsunade's cluttered desk, waiting for what she could possibly have to tell them all. Neji figured it must be serious if she had gone so far as to summon Sasuke's cat too.

It had him more worried than anything else. He was starting to feel like he worried too much.

"I bet you have no idea why I called you here."

It was a statement, but everyone nodded in agreement anyway.

"Then let me clarify. As you know, we've been losing contact with a few of the outer stations and a few of our own ships. We suspect their being abducted by some of the less friendly stations in the alliance. Not shocking, but all of you knew that anyway.

So here is something new. We're receiving threats now. Actual war threats. This may seem a concern for you personally Shikamaru, but that's not what we're here to discuss. This concerns Gaara."

Neji's heart stopped and his breath immediately caught in his throat. He hated when meetings like this were about Gaara. He was worried sick about the AI already. These things just tended to make it worse.

"Calm down Hyuuga, you look about to faint. I'm not saying he's in imminent danger, but I would like all of you to be warned. We've been informed that battleships are bringing people from the Searin Station to inspect our ships, labs, and databases. You people are the only ones who know of Gaara's existence, and it needs to be kept that way. He's a very valuable part of our system and the last thing we need is him to be in someone else's hands.

Originally he was a prototype for a new AI system to better help the pilots in flight training. However the Searin in particular wanted AIs for all of their ships. They've been pressing us for years now, to have Gaara finished and duplicated. They don't trust us and think we're keeping him to ourselves.

I'm not going to deny that we are a little selfish on this ship, but not without reason. The Searin would use Gaara for war and destruction only, they wish to be the station with the most powerful armies, it's no secret. That's what they are known for. But we've been having trouble.

Gaara can't be duplicated or copied in anyway. He's been made as a solo AI system that, when copied, self destructs and the Searin weren't happy to hear that.

Trying to put him on another ship would merely be a waste of time. And not to mention the cost of the explosion from a self destructing ship, would be incredible.

That's why you're here. I need all of you to keep silent. The story goes that Gaara wasn't installable and that he was destroyed in the destruction of the ship. No one else knows the truth, not even the council.

Hyuuga, I'm going to need you to explain this to Gaara and when the battle ships arrive, I want you to make sure he hides. Just tell him that and he'll understand. You'll have to be ready to take over all the necessary functions that Gaara usually does for you automatically. So be ready. Shikamaru, I want you to make sure Neji's used to all those functions so he doesn't embarrass us by crashing the ship in the hanger when Gaara goes into inactive mode."

Everyone but Neji nodded and Tsunade dismissed them.

They had done this sort of thing before. In case there was an emergency, she wanted Neji and Gaara to be able to handle themselves solo. Meaning during all the test runs, Gaara would disappear from the screen to be replaced by many green coded numbers moving down the monitor. The voice he heard had been altered too. Some woman's monotonic voice.

In short it meant that Neji would have to be able to fly a normal jet. Just like everyone else.

He'd been trained for that, but overall, he hated it and without daily practice, he often crashed the plane. And Gaara was never there to yell at him afterwards. That's what Neji really hated. When the redhead wasn't there waiting for him.

The boy had told him once, that it felt like putting yourself inside a small wooden crate, only to have it nailed shut behind you before you were even settled. Neji could see what he meant and hated it even more after he'd seen what it really did. Gaara never came out of it very well. There were a million numbered codes he had to input in order to pull the nails back out of said crate, and every time he did, the redhead came out pale and sick. Suffocated.

But it was necessary.

At least that's what Gaara was trying to convince him of, now that he'd gotten back to the jet and explained what was going on to the other boy.

Gaara always took it well. Better then Neji believed he should.

But after that, everything seemed back to normal for everyone else. That night and the next day passed without so much as a syllable about what was coming. Neji felt like he was really the only one bothered by it. He didn't like Gaara having to go through that. Not for anything.

Neji's friends knew this too.

Kiba and Shikamaru would walk by and squeeze his shoulder in reassurance. And Sakura would smile at him, clearly pitying him. Sasuke new better than anyone else did, being Neji's best friend, and instead of doing anything, he ignored it. Which gave Neji a chance to try to ignore it to without being reminded that he'd have to fly without Gaara again.

They all reacted the same every time. And this time was no different.

That night however, the Searin battleships were finally spotted on their cameras, and Tsunade gave the word for Neji to hide the AI systems on his jet.

And after much pacing around the small interior of his precious red plane, he did as he was told.

Gaara smiling at him reassuringly, before winking off the screens.

* * *

Here's Chapter Two! Enjoy.... the story is basically just starting... so be prepared...

Thank you to all of you who've been reviewing for me... your the only reason I remember to update! *applauds*


	3. As Predicted

**Chapter 3: As Predicted**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

* * *

Previously on Impervius AI

Gaara glanced suspiciously back at the boy, who was now smirking back at him from the high backed chair bolted down in the center of the room. He didn't seem angry at all anymore, merely amused with something.

"What?"

"I didn't forget the cherries."

"What!? You are a bastard."

"Does that mean I can have them then?"

"NOO!! I'm sorry…"

"Good boy."

---------

"Calm down Hyuuga, you look about to faint. I'm not saying he's in imminent danger, but I would like all of you to be warned. We've been informed that battleships are bringing people from the Searin Station to inspect our ships, labs, and databases. You people are the only ones who know of Gaara's existence, and it needs to be kept that way. He's a very valuable part of our system and the last thing we need is him to be in someone else's hands.

Originally he was a prototype for a new AI system to better help the pilots in flight training. However the Searin in particular wanted AIs for all of their ships. They've been pressing us for years now, to have Gaara finished and duplicated. They don't trust us and think we're keeping him to ourselves.

I'm not going to deny that we are a little selfish on this ship, but not without reason. The Searin would use Gaara for war and destruction only, they wish to be the station with the most powerful armies, it's no secret. That's what they are known for. But we've been having trouble.

Gaara can't be duplicated or copied in anyway. He's been made as a solo AI system that, when copied, self destructs and the Searin weren't happy to hear that.

Trying to put him on another ship would merely be a waste of time. And not to mention the cost of the explosion from a self destructing ship, would be incredible.

That's why you're here. I need all of you to keep silent. The story goes that Gaara wasn't installable and that he was destroyed in the destruction of the ship. No one else knows the truth, not even the council.

Hyuuga, I'm going to need you to explain this to Gaara and when the battle ships arrive, I want you to make sure he hides. Just tell him that and he'll understand. You'll have to be ready to take over all the necessary functions that Gaara usually does for you automatically. So be ready. Shikamaru, I want you to make sure Neji's used to all those functions so he doesn't embarrass us by crashing the ship in the hanger when Gaara goes into inactive mode."

**-As Predicted-**

An hour or so after Gaara was put to sleep, as Neji called it to make himself feel better, The three best teams on the flight squad were lined up in the hanger, waiting to greet the captain of the Searin fleet.

Shikamaru, Sakura, and Neji lined up in front while the other two teams stood behind them as sort of a back up for when they escorted the other stations representatives off the premises. Neji couldn't wait until there were gone, and they'd only just arrived. But he couldn't really be blamed for those thoughts, seeing as everyone else had the same idea. The Searin were not much liked by anyone, but to have to meet them face to face when they'd most likely be armed, was madness.

They had a reputation for being unreasonable and attacking without warrant.

The Searin were soon seen docking on the outer part of the station leading directly into the hangers and everyone tensed, their boot steps were easily audible from this distance. And then they were coming through the doors, Shikamaru moving forward to greet the other ship's fleet captain. Words were exchanged and Neji and Sakura were ordered to show their planes to the other captain as well.

Neji watched as the man said something and all the other Searin men spread out, searching through the normal jets, computer files in the flight communication station built back into the wall on the second level so that all planes were easily seen from it.

Everyone was looking for something. That was clear enough.

Shikamaru's black jet was the first to be looked over by the captain. And that had Neji worried. The man went through everything, the inside of the ship, any back up systems on the plane, all the electrically wired systems and functions, and then the computer files them selves, leaving nothing unchecked.

Naturally nothing was found, but that didn't mean his plane would walk freely unless Gaara really was out of the system.

The man seemed to get a little frustrated after he finished looking through Sakura's jet.

"Let me make this clear. If I find what I'm looking for, this station is going to be in pieces, you lying traitors that you are."

Neji could tell that that statement was not at all appreciated by the Nara.

"And what, pray tell, are you looking for? Maybe we could assist you?"

Shikamaru practically bit back the words, causing both Sakura and Neji to fidget just a little.

"You don't know? That's rich, even the scum on this ship turn out to be deceivers. Well let me enlighten your pathetic intelligence. We know that you Aerilen people are hiding a special AI system. And we are going to find it.

We were informed a few months ago that the system itself was indeed, created. However we were also informed that when you tried to place it in one of your ships, the jet was destroyed along with the AI prototype. We don't believe that bullshit.

Why would a station, known for it's incredible flyers, have let such information be destroyed? Simple. You lied to us.

Your reputations far exceed any from the other ships, and there is no way that could be unless you were secretly using this destroyed AI to fly with. It may have been said to be uncopyable, but I could care less. There is no way the three of you could fly the way you do without some sort of special shove. And the three of you certainly don't come off as geniuses."

The man laughed, and Shikamaru looked ready to kill him.

Neji knew better than to argue and cause a fight on their own turf, so he kept silent, while Sakura did the same and kept her head down.

Then it was Neji's turn to wish death on the other man.

Because the first thing he did when they'd gotten to Neji's jet, was laugh about the color and the style it was made in.

"You have got to be kidding. You actually fly this piece of shit? You must be a real genius to be able to fly that thing. It's one of the oldest models I've ever seen that still runs. And it's red! You'd think you'd have already been shot down by someone. Even a 6 year old could hit you blind folded. You're like a sitting target."

The man seemed to think that was just hilarious, Neji just stood behind him and spit at the back of his head, watching it hit with satisfaction as the man reached back and then looked up to see if one of the other jets was leaking on him. Thankfully he didn't catch on to Neji's blatant dislike.

"Older models are sturdier, and less likely to absorb as much damage."

Neji muttered, making the man laugh again and say something about that being the only good thing that came from junk.

The Hyuuga said little after that while the man searched his ship.

Neji couldn't help smiling to himself though as the man spent twice as much time going through his system than any of the others. Complaining about how nothing was organized and everything was in the wrong places.

That must have been Gaara's doing, because really the boy wasn't all that organized like other people were. He knew where everything was, but if you tried to switch it up so that it was more understandable for normal humans, he'd bite your head off.

Claiming that you were trying to ruin everything.

Neji had tried that once and then given up when Gaara decided not to talk to him for the next two days. After that he'd just had to learn where everything was on his own.

The man was a failure at that. He couldn't even find the link into the plane systems.

After awhile he seemed to give up and smacked his fist down on the computer keys of Neji's laptop. Immediately hitting something that played music on the jet speakers.

The song that came on was one that Neji heard a lot of when he was near the jet. He rarely had to be inside to hear it because it was Gaara's favorite song. He could still remember the one time a few years back when he'd accidentally walked in on the boy dancing to it on the monitor. He never did it when the brunette was there, but the fact that he didn't was all that much cuter, it meant Gaara was just a little shy. Neji waited and bobbed his head just slightly to the music, forgetting that he was supposed to be explaining to the other man.

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody?"

Neji opened his eyes and looked down at the man who was just staring up at him with the weirdest look on his face.

"By Whitney Houston, It's a good song."

"So you're a wussy, gay fag, who flies a crappy plane and listens to girly music. And I thought I knew you people."

The other man left the plane before Neji could make a comeback, of course Sakura's hand over his mouth was also part of the problem.

---------

Neji had never been happier to see someone go.

He jumped into his jet and secured the hatch before fastening the belts over his chest in a giant cross and starting up the engines.

Shikamaru pulled out first, with Neji behind him and Sakura behind them. Later followed by the other six people that had been with them.

Neji flew on the side of the Searin fleet, quite happy to see them get lost, and just to spite the captain, he turned on Gaara's song and sent a copy of it to him. Which probably was not the smartest move he could have done, but he knew that already. Of course what he hadn't expected was for it to make the captain turn around and start shooting at him.

Noticing that the man wasn't just trying to scare him, and was actually aiming to harm him, Neji flew off and was immediately chased.

Shikamaru appearing on his screen as the rest of the small Searin fleet started attacking.

"What did you do?"

"I was just being nice."

"Which means?"

"I sent him a lovely parting gift."

"What was it?"

"A song."

"Only you Neji."

Shikamaru smiled and shook his head, letting Neji know just how troublesome he was before laughing and winking off Neji's screen.

The brunette smiled too, flying in circles around the Searin captain, trying to make him dizzy. He knew that Shikamaru couldn't be mad at him for getting back at the man in such a harmless way. Especially when it was more funny than anything else.

Then the Searin captain appeared on his screen and started yelling curses at him, telling him to stop the music.

Neji just laughed and made kissy faces at the screen before flying off again. Royally pissing the other man off.

It didn't stay that way for long though.

The Searin captain put on an extra burst of speed to catch up as Neji aimed his guns at the other man, hitting the tail of the captain's jet.

He avoided the shot that came after him before the man started to spin out of control, but he wasn't expecting the second one that seemed to come out of no where and hit him. What was worse was that the shot went right through the jet and hit him. Not even denting the metal.

It was a gas designed to take out the pilot of the ship but leave the vessel intact. It was something pirate ships used to capture ships unharmed so they could sell them or use them later.

But it was a forbidden weapon for the captain to have, it was a dead give away too.

Only pirates had this, and once everyone found out what he was hit with, the council would soon find out that the Searin were the ones who'd hired pirates and caused so much trouble throughout the skies, stealing and killing the things from other stations when they were trying to trade.

Neji left and flew back to the hanger as fast as he could, crashing his jet just slightly when he made it into the hanger, haphazardly hitting a few of the walls before he was actually able to drop the jet into his space.

Giggle fits started making Neji's sides hurt as he fell out of his chair and onto the floor of the jet.

Harmony gas.

That's what the weapon had been named. It was exactly the type of thing doctors used in hospitals. Only instead they called it Laughing gas. It was anything but funny though, because this didn't put you to sleep, this stuff made you laugh until you died of suffocation because you couldn't breathe.

Neji laughed painfully. Knowing it was all worth it.

* * *

Finally another chapter written, hope you enjoy...

Oh... and one more thing... a personal thank you!

**Kaiser Wilhelm:** _Thank you for that awesome review you gave me last chapter, it made me happy to hear you enjoyed this story so much!_

So... Thank you to everyone for reading and I hope you review so that I'll keep writing! Enjoy!


	4. Disadvantage

**Chapter 4: Disadvantage**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

Previously on Impervius AI

The Searin were soon seen docking on the outer part of the station leading directly into the hangers and everyone tensed, their boot steps were easily audible from this distance. And then they were coming through the doors, Shikamaru moving forward to greet the other ship's fleet captain. Words were exchanged and Neji and Sakura were ordered to show their planes to the other captain as well.

---------

"Let me make this clear. If I find what I'm looking for, this station is going to be in pieces, you lying traitors that you are."

Neji could tell that that statement was not at all appreciated by the Nara.

"And what, pray tell, are you looking for? Maybe we could assist you?"

Shikamaru practically bit back the words, causing both Sakura and Neji to fidget just a little.

"You don't know? That's rich, even the scum on this ship turn out to be deceivers. Well let me enlighten your pathetic intelligence. We know that you Aerilen people are hiding a special AI system. And we are going to find it.

We were informed a few months ago that the system itself was indeed, created. However we were also informed that when you tried to place it in one of your ships, the jet was destroyed along with the AI prototype. We don't believe that bullshit.

Why would a station, known for it's incredible flyers, have let such information be destroyed? Simple. You lied to us.

Your reputations far exceed any from the other ships, and there is no way that could be unless you were secretly using this destroyed AI to fly with. It may have been said to be uncopyable, but I could care less. There is no way the three of you could fly the way you do without some sort of special shove. And the three of you certainly don't come off as geniuses."

----------

Then it was Neji's turn to wish death on the other man.

Because the first thing he did when they'd gotten to Neji's jet, was laugh about the color and the style it was made in.

"You have got to be kidding. You actually fly this piece of shit? You must be a real genius to be able to fly that thing. It's one of the oldest models I've ever seen that still runs. And it's red! You'd think you'd have already been shot down by someone. Even a 6 year old could hit you blind folded. You're like a sitting target."

The man seemed to think that was just hilarious, Neji just stood behind him and spit at the back of his head, watching it hit with satisfaction as the man reached back and then looked up to see if one of the other jets was leaking on him. Thankfully he didn't catch on to Neji's blatant dislike.

"Older models are sturdier, and less likely to absorb as much damage."

Neji muttered, making the man laugh again and say something about that being the only good thing that came from junk.

The Hyuuga said little after that while the man searched his ship.

Neji couldn't help smiling to himself though as the man spent twice as much time going through his system than any of the others. Complaining about how nothing was organized and everything was in the wrong places.

That must have been Gaara's doing, because really the boy wasn't all that organized like other people were. He knew where everything was, but if you tried to switch it up so that it was more understandable for normal humans, he'd bite your head off.

Claiming that you were trying to ruin everything.

----------

Neji left and flew back to the hanger as fast as he could, crashing his jet just slightly when he made it into the hanger, haphazardly hitting a few of the walls before he was actually able to drop the jet into his space.

Giggle fits started making Neji's sides hurt as he fell out of his chair and onto the floor of the jet.

Harmony gas.

That's what the weapon had been named. It was exactly the type of thing doctors used in hospitals. Only instead they called it Laughing gas. It was anything but funny though, because this didn't put you to sleep, this stuff made you laugh until you died of suffocation because you couldn't breathe.

Neji laughed painfully. Knowing it was all worth it.

**-Disadvantage-**

Neji couldn't say exactly where he was when he regained consciousness, but the fact that he did just that was a good sign.

When he managed to get his eyes open and sit up, he was still light headed and had to lay back down. The small glimpse he'd gotten of the room though, proved that he was in the hospital back in the space station, in a hospital bed with the Aerilen symbol stitched into one of the top corners of the thin white blankets.

It took him a moment more before he was able to open his eyes again and really keep them open.

When he did however, he wasn't sure he was all that happy to be awake. Lady Tsunade was sitting in the chair next to his bed, looking just slightly more irritated then he wished, and Sasuke was back in the corner by one window, discretely looking out the window while hiding behind the small yellow cat in his hands.

It didn't make much sense to him then, but soon the blonde woman noticed him and began to pull him up out of the bed.

"Lady Tsunade-"

"Shut up Uchiha! We have no time to waist, get this boy to the hanger."

"That's not wise, he can barely stand on his own!"

Neji watched Sasuke come to his rescue only to fail when the ogre of a woman stole Naruto from him and had him cowering on the ground, begging for the little blonde feline back. Naruto seemed more interested in Lady Tsunade's pigtails than anything else and decided to ignore the rest of them and play with the moving hair.

"Now you listen to me! Both of you!"

Neji and Sasuke listened.

"With that Nara in the hospital I have no one but an exhausted Haruno running things out there. She's not supposed to be in charge of anything, just fight. So when I say get Neji out there in Shikamaru's place, you do not try to tell me no."

Neji wasn't able to speak yet, but if he could, he'd be telling her over and over again just how awful that statement was.

She'd rather have him out there, barely able to see straight, flying, and commanding the fleet than Sakura. She may not have been a bright girl, but she was still capable enough to do that. He wasn't even sure what the hell was going on.

That didn't stop her from dragging him out of the room though and through half the station before he was able to get up, and stay up on his feet.

He was even in his chair in his jet before he realized it.

That was not a good thing.

"Now boy, there's a war going on out there! Those stupid Searins came back to cause problems. I don't care what you have to do, but you better be out there in the next ten minutes or you're a dead man. Do you hear me Hyuuga? I will not have this ship go down because my best fighters were in the hospital. They must think they are so clever going for my best pilots. I'll kill them!"

Neji vaguely understood something about the Searins and problems during the woman's ranting. So at the moment, the long haired brunette assumed that meant they were outside starting a war.

Her next ranting comments confirmed that before she began to turn her wrath back on him.

"Get that stupid computer back up and running! You hear me? You're the only one who's got the code memorized to release Gaara. So get to it!"

With that she was gone, slamming the hatch to his jet as she left. Leaving Neji very much alone to try and figure out what in the world she was going on about. He wasn't the only one who knew that code. No matter how long he'd been unconscious Gaara should have been unlocked already and free.

However when Neji turned on the systems to his jet, they weren't the redheads customized pages with metallic skins and fancy background pictures. They were just like every other jet.

This made Neji feel sick.

He immediately let his hands flicker over the keyboard until he'd typed in the entire thirty-three digit code.

How could she expect them to fly when she'd left Gaara incapacitated for so long. He'd be in wretched shape, and sick to the point were he was barely audible over the speakers. Even worse than the condition Neji was in.

She was a foolish woman for expecting this of him, but to treat Gaara like that was just plain inconsiderate.

That didn't give him much choice though when the system change took place and Gaara's tired pale and slightly green face winked back onto the monitors.

Neji felt sick just seeing how horrible the boy looked.

Not only did he look like he was either about to faint or puke, his hair looked flat and dirty, his lips dry and chapped. It didn't look as though the poor redhead could breathe very well either. Sure he was a computer, but not breathing on the monitor hinted that the jet itself wasn't getting enough air to the engines.

Neji had flown with the boy enough to know the meanings behind most of Gaara's behavior.

However neither of them were able to say a word to each other before Lady Tsunade appeared on the screen, telling them she was overriding their controls until they were out of the hanger.

"I knew you wouldn't move the way I wanted you to Hyuuga. Just be thankful I'm doing this much for you! After that you better fly and fly well, you brat!"

The jet moved them, scarring the hell out of Neji and making Gaara look even greener.

-----------

Sakura had been out there for days it seemed. Flying between the teams to heal wounded pilots and transport people back to the space station.

Normally this was Shikamaru's job, along with throwing out orders.

But since he'd been knocked out cold in the first round of attacks from the Searin, and Neji, who was usually second in command, had been unconscious before the war had even started, the tasks were left to her.

She wasn't too happy about that.

Nor was she all that thrilled when Neji's jet practically fell out of the hanger and into the battle field.

Sakura pulled up his communication screen onto hers and was even more upset. Not only did she see how horrible the two of them looked, knowing they'd never be able to fly like that, but she had to find out that their own leader was the one who'd dragged Neji out of the hospital just to put him out there.

Sakura couldn't do much else but curse, directly shooting at a few opposing jets.

"I guess all we can do then is keep you out here. You'll be more of a hindrance than anything! What the hell was Lady Tsunade thinking?! Whatever. The point is, I'll keep doing things in Shika's place. If you get shot at, run around and I'll have people make sure to pick them off as you distract them."

Sakura didn't wait after that. She closed the screen and kept doing her best, taking down as many other ships as she could. That was the best any of them could do.

-----------

Gaara knew better than to think either of them would get through this okay. Even running as they'd been ordered to was going to be a challenge.

His head already felt like it was on fire from the headache pounding behind his temples.

But he knew what he had to do.

He watched Neji fly them in and around other ships, doing his best to dodge and distract the ships, he even managed to get a few of them to run into each other and blow up. Which usually took out a few more nearby.

Gaara didn't think it would last though.

This was merely a good string of luck, leading up to the bad.

When they were finally free from followers, Gaara decided it was time to tell Neji what he was thinking.

"Romeo?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Yes, I need you to do something for me."

"No."

"Just grab my back up disks in the storage compartment under your chair and put them in your pocket."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Gaara made sure to keep a close eye on the other jets as Neji did what he was told.

The redhead had thought about this before. What he would do in a situation like this. He'd had far too much time to think about it, in his opinion. But he knew now what he was going to do.

The jet's engines were already shot, and were nearly on fire. They'd been hit and some of the computer systems had gone down. The navigation systems had been fried as well, leaving them in a dark spot on all their maps and only able to fly forward, without turns. Just a straight line.

The damage would have been far too expensive to replace, and Gaara already knew that their jet was too old to be fixed. They didn't make the parts for it anymore.

So Gaara's conclusion was to shut everything else down, taking all control from Neji and fly straight ahead where the leaders ship was surrounded by a mass of others waiting for orders and acting as protection.

Neji yelled at him, but he kept going.

Dodging past the ring of guards.

Their guns were ripped off and rendered useless, but Gaara hadn't actually planned to use them.

Instead he did something he knew Neji would never do, and crashed the jet right into the side of the other captain's plane. Self destructing it to explode not only the two on impact, but the entire mass around it.

Gaara's only concern was to drop everything and turn on life support.

Hoping that when the explosion was over, someone would come and get him out before that failed too.

----------

Neji couldn't do anything but watch as they hit the other plane, fire immediately hitting the glass windshield and blocking everything else from view.

His heart had even stopped beating for that one moment.

But the pain that came when his head slammed against the back of the seat and his computer smashed against one of his knees, was nothing in comparison to seeing that small smile on Gaara's face when the boy looked at him.

Neji knew then, exactly what Gaara had done.

And he hated himself for not having stopped it, watching in silence as tears welled up in the boy's eyes and blood began dripping from his mouth.

Then just like that, all power in his jet went down, the safety pod was activated and immediately sealed him in, dropping him out of the jet just in time to watch it explode above him.

Nothing left but the small glass escape pod Neji was in, and the horrifying agony that followed.

* * *

I have finally written the next chapter... sorry it took a little longer than usual... enjoy!


	5. Uselessness

**Chapter 5: Uselessness**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

_Note: I made the recap shorter, for those who care, it was getting a little harder to write every time…_

* * *

Previously on Impervius AI

Neji couldn't do anything but watch as they hit the other plane, fire immediately hitting the glass windshield and blocking everything else from view.

His heart had even stopped beating for that one moment.

But the pain that came when his head slammed against the back of the seat and his computer smashed against one of his knees, was nothing in comparison to seeing that small smile on Gaara's face when the boy looked at him.

Neji knew then, exactly what Gaara had done.

And he hated himself for not having stopped it, watching in silence as tears welled up in the boy's eyes and blood began dripping from his mouth.

Then just like that, all power in his jet went down, the safety pod was activated and immediately sealed him in, dropping him out of the jet just in time to watch it explode above him.

Nothing left but the small glass escape pod Neji was in, and the horrifying agony that followed.

**-Uselessness-**

Sasuke sighed tiredly as one after another of his attempts at starting a conversation with the brunette failed. He wasn't used to seeing Neji this way, but ever since the accident, things had only gotten harder for the boy. A few days had passed now, and each day had made the pilot even more lifeless than before. Even now he was merely sitting in Sasuke's lab with him, staring at the floor blankly.

The raven couldn't blame him.

First it'd been the crash and the death of Gaara that had the brunette walking aimlessly around the space station, randomly sobbing and never speaking a word to anyone. But then came the failure of Gaara's back up discs, exploding every new plane they tried to install them in. And then today, Tsunade had given him a new jet.

One with two seats and a completely normal system. Nothing but the monotone voice recording of a lady to keep him company.

Sasuke knew that wasn't even the half of it, but since Neji hadn't said a word to him, he couldn't possibly have imagined what the rest was. But since Neji had come back to his lab looking more like a ghost than a human, Sasuke assumed that this was the worst blow anyone could have given the Hyuuga.

---------------

Neji had been lost in thought since everything had happened. It wasn't a safe place for him to be, but he couldn't help it. The memories and thoughts came unbidden and he just didn't have the heart to ignore them.

After the brunette had been dropped from his jet, and the last traces of his red plane had turned to nothing but space waste, Neji had felt completely frozen. The Searin captain had been killed, meaning the end of the small battle being fought as every last one of their fleet that had survived, fled. There had been a point where Sakura had come to pick him up too, but really all of that was a blur.

The only clear thing about those memories, was Gaara was no longer in them.

Gaara had been in all Neji's memories until now.

When Neji had been taken back to the space station, Tsunade had congratulated him on the victory, going into detail about how scared they had been. How they would never mess with the Aerilens again. And that had been the start of everything.

Neji had started to cry. Really cry.

Deep wrenching sobs that caught everyone in the hospital room off guard. And at that point he'd felt completely broken. Tsunade hadn't been told the extent of the problem yet, and Neji couldn't tell her. He could barely look at her without wanting to jump up and strangle her. This was her fault.

Neji was convinced of this. Whether she was the leader or not, she'd been the one to order them out onto the battle field when they should have been resting. She'd murdered Gaara.

Neji hated her right now.

He'd been so lost and hurt at the time that he hadn't seen Sakura practically shove the woman out of the room to explain things. Even Shikamaru, who'd barely woken up in the bed next to him, understood what the problem was.

Ever since then, none of his friends would leave him alone.

Sakura would constantly try to make him eat food that no longer had any appeal. Begging him to at least try to get better. The brunette merely figured there was nothing he could get better from. Nothing would be able to help him.

Shikamaru and Temari had hardly been any different.

The two of them were convinced he needed to be helped too. So everyday, Shikamaru would try to get him to fly again and Temari would do his laundry or clean his rooms without asking him. Neji hated that too.

He didn't want to fly anymore.

And doing simple cleaning was the only thing he could do to keep himself busy.

Sasuke was the only one of them he could stand to be around. The raven let him sit in the lab with him, and instead of trying to help him, he'd just talk about random things, most of the time not really needing Neji to respond. So that was where Neji had gone everyday, to sit and be alone.

The days after all of this had taken place, Tsunade had finally decided to try and make it up to him.

The woman was obviously not a sympathetic person.

Everyday she'd give Neji a newer plane model that she'd have to force him into, and everyday she'd help him try to resurrect Gaara into one of the systems with his old back up discs. The first time, Neji had actually held a little hope.

But then the plane had self destructed, giving him barely enough time to grab the discs out of the reader and run like hell out of the hanger.

After that, he'd been even less willing to try.

Every plane, regardless of model, size, system, regardless of anything, had blown up in his face. It was obvious he was merely trying to do the impossible. Gaara was never coming back, and nothing he did was going to change that. He was far too complicated for any machine to handle, and even if he did come back somehow, there was a definite possibility he wouldn't remember everything.

Gaara had told him the discs only held his system set ups and the previous things that had been altered or added. Never anything about memories.

Neji wasn't sure he could handle anything like that, let alone an empty computer screen with the redhead's face on it, telling him he didn't like the brunette, as he'd done the first time they'd met.

After awhile though, Tsunade got tired of having to make up for losing five different jets and instead, had done something that made Neji want to just give up entirely and die in some ventilation shaft somewhere.

Today was the day she gave Neji a new jet.

The thing was a normal grey like everything else in the hanger, not red, which was Gaara's favorite color. It was an older model, about the same age as the one he'd had before, but instead of only having one seat for the pilot, there were two. One for Neji, the pilot, and one for the person running all the controls. Gaara.

The plane was completely manual instead of the automatics all of the other pilots had. But since Neji had refused to fly them, Tsunade had thought this would be a better solution.

Neji, however, wouldn't even step inside the plane.

"Whether you like it or not. This is your new plane and you will fly it in a few days time when I can get one of the new technicians in here to work the controls. And yes, they will be your partner. So suck it up!"

Neji had been furious then. Not only had he started to cry again at the sight of the new plane he wasn't allowed to try and install Gaara in. He'd have to be with someone completely different.

He hadn't realized what he'd done then, until Shikamaru had come running in from the hallway and Sakura had started shrieking.

Apparently, while he'd been lost in though, he'd picked up a wrench.

And thrown it right at Tsunade.

Hearing the woman's cries of pain had been the only time he'd smiled all week. Honestly, how was he supposed to feel bad for the woman who'd destroyed his everything? Easy, he wasn't. So as the woman had been taken to the hospital down the hall on a stretcher, Neji had been 'escorted' to Sasuke's lab. Where he'd stayed ever since, having been prohibited by the guards to leave the room, and also not feeling the need to.

The guards had come back a few hours later to inform he and Sasuke that 'Lady' Tsunade was fine, and merely had a few deep cuts and bruises on her back, but nothing was broken.

Neji had merely fallen asleep half way through hearing this.

------------

And that led them right back to the present.

Sasuke watched quietly as he held Naruto on his lap, petting him absentmindedly as Neji fell asleep in the chair he'd been using.

The raven hadn't know the entire situation until the guards had explained everything to him, and even then, it was hard to feel sorry for Lady Tsunade when she'd done something so horrible to Neji. Needless to say, he still couldn't blame the brunette for what had happened. He'd have done the same thing if the woman had been the one to turn his boyfriend into a cat, but no, that had been his fault and he had no one else to blame.

Whereas Neji had everyone else to blame. Except for maybe the wrench part of things, but even that had been an unconscious attack to protect what Neji still held close to him. Every animal did that when they or the thing they loved was threatened, it could hardly be helped, and as a scientist, Sasuke had already had to study all about that sort of thing.

Sasuke set Naruto down on the little quilt bed he'd made for the cat that was sitting on his desk, before moving over to the now sleeping Neji.

This was the first time the boy had slept all week.

And it was also the first time Sasuke had been given a chance to try something he wanted to try with the discs in Neji's pocket.

Moving as gently as he could, the raven slipped his hand into the pilot's front pocket on his jacket, searching. It felt wrong, and a little like betrayal since Sasuke knew already that Neji didn't want anyone's help, but the raven had this gut feeling that he at least had to try. Except that usually Neji refused to let anyone else touch Gaara's back up discs.

So Sasuke had no choice.

His fingers brushed against the plastic case of the discs and pulled them out slowly, feeling even worse about this as he actually got his first look at the small CD's. The discs themselves being hardly bigger than a gold dollar. It wasn't that though, that made Sasuke pause. It was the picture Neji had printed and cut down to fit in the front. Anyone could have guessed that it was a picture of Gaara, but it was one that Sasuke knew, was only meant for Neji's eyes.

It was one of a smiling Gaara eating cherries and dancing to music no one else could hear. A picture that Neji had obviously taken without the boy's knowing it.

Sasuke turned the case upside down to hide the picture from sight before he walked into the section of his lab where he kept all his failed machines.

He had been wanting to try this ever since he'd heard about Gaara's sacrifice, but knew that if he mentioned it to Neji the boy would get his hopes up, to most likely be crushed. After all, the regeneration machine he'd been working on was far from perfectly operational. It still only managed to produce bloody skin or random body parts when it worked, and the rest of the time it just made crunching noises and turned itself off.

It was a long shot, but Sasuke at least wanted to be able to say that he tried.

And who knew, maybe the machine would prefer computer discs to actual DNA samples. The disc reader on the machine had to be there for something.

So, taking a deep breath, Sasuke pulled the plastic cover off the machine and set to work actually turning the thing on. When that was a success, Sasuke actually held the breath he'd taken and pushed each disc into the machine, letting it copy the information on each one. That was about the time when the little touch screen monitor he'd been using turned off, but since the machine didn't seem to be making any less noise, he assumed it was still processing and working.

Quickly slipping the discs back into the case, Sasuke waited watching the machine intently. Nothing happened though. The monitor came back on and said the regeneration was complete, but as Sasuke had kind of suspected, nothing was actually laying on the bed of the machine, even under the glass dome, Sasuke could tell it was empty.

Sighing to himself, Sasuke left the room and went back into his office where Neji was still sleeping. He slipped the case back into Neji's pocket.

Coming to the conclusion that Neji never needed to know what he'd attempted and failed to do. It'd break the boy's heart.

Then suddenly, Sasuke heard a soft humming noise start up in the other room. He ran to check and the minute he got to the machine, all the power in the rooms went out, and from the yelling he could hear in the hall, so did the power in half the station.

The only thing still proving that the machine was on, was the soft hum and the light coming from the monitor. Two shocking words left flashing on the screen.

'Processing Data'

* * *

I know it took me forever to update... but here it is... hope you like it...

And for those of you who read my other story Witchwood... no, it's not over yet...

Anyway... read and enjoy everyone...


	6. Processing Data

**Chapter 6: 'Processing Data'**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

* * *

Previously on Impervius AI

Then suddenly, Sasuke heard a soft humming noise start up in the other room. He ran to check and the minute he got to the machine, all the power in the rooms went out, and from the yelling he could hear in the hall, so did the power in half the station.

The only thing still proving that the machine was on, was the soft hum and the light coming from the monitor. Two shocking words left flashing on the screen.

'Processing Data'

**-'Processing Data'-**

Sasuke wasn't sure what to do once the machine started actually working. He'd never seen it do anything like this before, and for a brief moment, he just stared at it in awe. That is, until the little reconstruction claws started to move. At that point, the raven began to move move as fast as he could out of the room. Neji had to see this.

Even if the thing only managed to build the bones of a hand, it would still be Gaara's hand, and even then, maybe he'd be able to see at least a glimmer of hope in the Hyuuga's eyes.

It could work.

Sasuke ran through the door, practically smashing into the sleeping pilot and throwing him out of the chair.

"Wake up Nej! You have to see this."

Sasuke couldn't even begin to express his excitement, and Neji seemed to get that, because he too got up and ran out of the room with Sasuke, right on the scientist's heels.

"Look."

Sasuke pointed to the machine, which had already started moving at the speed of light, placing tiny discs of recreated bone one after the other. The little metal claws inside were already nearly finished with the little pieces it had been forming into feet and hands.

"Don't be angry, but… I sort of stole Gaara's back up discs out of your pocket. It's making his skeleton Neji! And after that it'll attach the nerves, muscles, organs… everything. Then it'll grow the skin, and the hair and lastly, it'll give him life and memories. Well, that's how it's supposed to work, lord knows it hasn't been doing all that great of a job but-"

"Shh."

Neji didn't need to hear all that. It was a bit much, for his still semi-fogged mind to take in.

However there was one thing he did catch, this machine, was actually making Gaara. The pilot had known for some time now that Sasuke was working on this particular machine, but all the projects he'd tried with it had failed. Until now.

The brunette watched in fascination as the machine began to piece together the legs and arms of the skeleton that was forming in front of him. Another set of metal claws unfolded from the machine once the knees and elbows had been completed, bringing thin sheets of bone with it that started being pieced together into a skull.

It wasn't until that was completely done, and the last pieces of the ribs were being put into place, that it started to sink in.

If this worked, Gaara would soon be in front of him, completely fine. There wouldn't be any visualized blood stains or fried circuits. No more pixels or having to recopy back up systems.

Neji watched as the organs were created and placed inside the body, the last one being the heart. With all it's red and blue veins.

This was the real thing.

Gaara would no longer just be an image.

Neji couldn't have given a damn at the moment, whether Sasuke had stolen the discs from him when he'd been sleeping or not. Right now, he could have kissed the man for even having an idea like this. Not that he actually would though. Neji just felt so happy, and excited.

Even if for some reason, the machine stopped working, it still proved to the pilot that there was still hope. And there was always another try after that. If he had to try the machine a million times, he would.

The machine's metal claws finished stringing and attaching the last bits of muscle and tissue before disappearing and folding themselves back up into the designated openings in the machine.

"What happens now?"

Neji whispered, hoping the machine hadn't just stopped.

"It grows the skin."

Sasuke answered, just as softly.

Neji kept his eyes glued to the machine as another layer of thin metal closed off his view of the body from inside the glass dome.

He could hear Sasuke explaining.

"That's supposed to block the radiation from leaving the dome when the skin's being produced. It helps make the skin stronger by bouncing the waves back into body itself. Saves time, and it helps."

Neji merely nodded and waited for the metal blockers to disappear.

A few minutes later they did.

Neji forgot to breathe. There lay Gaara, he wasn't finished yet, but there he was all the same. His skin was lighter than Neji's and he was definitely not as tall as the pilot either, but he still had the same bright red hair and black rings around his eyes. The brunette had always assumed that they had been glitches in the jets monitor, but apparently Gaara really was a redhead with natural dark rings that made his eyes stand out. His eyebrows had always been a thing Neji teased him about, but right now, looking down at the pale smooth face beneath him, he couldn't laugh. The redhead was perfect without them.

His hair was longer then Neji remembered, his skin a touch lighter then it had been on his screen, but when the pilot mentioned it, Sasuke said it was because Gaara hadn't seen the sun yet, not really, and it was supposed to be normal for hair to come out longer than usual.

Neji smiled.

While he'd been daydreaming and watching the redhead, a small light extended from one end of the machine to the other. All the processing noises and wurring of the machine got quiet then. And a new message was displayed on the screen.

Sasuke and Neji looked down simultaneously and read:

'Activating'

Neji's head snapped up and he watched as the light in the dome flashed. Three times.

And when his eyes finally adjusted back after the bright light had stopped, there they were. A pair of light pastel, blue green eyes staring back at him, along with a slightly smug smile. Neji couldn't help smiling too.

Sasuke moved over to the machine and opened the glass dome before leaving the room.

Neji barely noticed.

The minute the glass was out of the way, he was by the bed where Gaara lay, the redhead already having been pulled up into a tight hug that Neji refused to move from.

It wasn't until Sasuke came back in and cleared his throat that Neji let go. Embarrassed.

Sasuke moved behind where Gaara had been pulled into a sitting position and had managed to wrap a thick blanket around him before Neji even realized why. And once it registered, he blushed even harder. He'd been so lost in the bliss of just having the other boy there, that he hadn't noticed the small shivers and obvious nakedness of the redhead.

He hadn't even noticed the lack of movement from the other boy.

"Gaara?"

"Romeo."

The smile was still in place when Neji laughed, relieved to hear the rich deep voice of the other boy, it was too quiet for the pilot's liking, but he had to remember that everything was new to Gaara as well, and would take time.

Sasuke left them alone again and Neji was grateful.

"Earth to spacey Hyuuga? I'm freezing because I'm naked, I'm hungry because my new stomach has yet to be filled, and I can't move because my muscles don't know how to do that yet. Stop staring and help me."

"As bossy as ever, you haven't changed Juliet."

"Of course I haven't, nothings happened. I haven't gone anywhere, and there you are, acting like I died or something."

"You… don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

Neji stayed quiet for a minute, trying to think of why Gaara wouldn't remember.

"The fight with the Searin. Don't you remember?"

"Oh that, wasn't I supposed to go into hiding for that soon?"

Neji went silent again and after a few minutes, he realized what the problem was.

"You updated your back up discs before you went into hiding, but we never got the chance once I brought you back out to update them again. The fight's over, we won technically. But… Gaara you…"

Gaara looked concerned for a minute. That much made sense, but whatever happened after that seemed to be affecting Neji. He couldn't even fathom why the boy would be acting like this. What had he done?

"I what, Neji?"

"You died."

"What?"

"You committed suicide and crashed the jet into the other captain's ship. The jet was destroyed, I've been trying for days to bring you back."

"Oh… Neji I…"

"It's okay, you're here now. That's all that matters."

Neji pulled Gaara against him again and picked the other boy up, making sure the blanket was still around him while he carried the red head out of the lab. They passed through Sasuke's office together and the scientist smiled, telling them they should probably inform Tsunade.

Neji agreed and left.

But the whole time, Gaara barely noticed anything. If what Neji said was true, then it was no wonder the Hyuuga had cried the way he did. But Gaara was having trouble believing it. They must have been in serious trouble or he never would have done anything like that.

When he finally came out of his thoughts, they were in the hospital wing. Gaara was immediately distracted by everything. It was so… white. And the poor AI had never seen anything other then the inside of Neji's jet before.

There was going to be a lot to get used to.

* * *

Here's the sixth Chapter of Impervius AI...

Hope you like it!


	7. Rehabilitation

**Chapter 7: Rehabilitation**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

* * *

Previously on Impervius AI

"Gaara?"

"Romeo."

The smile was still in place when Neji laughed, relieved to hear the rich deep voice of the other boy, it was too quiet for the pilot's liking, but he had to remember that everything was new to Gaara as well, and would take time.

Sasuke left them alone again and Neji was grateful.

"Earth to spacey Hyuuga? I'm freezing because I'm naked, I'm hungry because my new stomach has yet to be filled, and I can't move because my muscles don't know how to do that yet. Stop staring and help me."

"As bossy as ever, you haven't changed Juliet."

"Of course I haven't, nothings happened. I haven't gone anywhere, and there you are, acting like I died or something."

"You… don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

**-Rehabilitation-**

Neji was far too happy to have Gaara back, even though the boy just seemed to give him funny looks. The Hyuuga was assuming that the redhead hadn't actually registered his knew body yet. Secretly, Neji hoped he was there when the realization finally hit Gaara, he was kind of looking forward to the boy freaking out.

He was just too calm and composed about all of this.

Neji on the other hand, was hit immediately with the realization, and was taking it out on the helpless boy, by smothering him with smiles and happy chatter the entire walk to the hospital. Where they would talk with Tsunade and figure out what to do with Gaara.

Neji hoped he'd be able to keep the boy with him. He'd hate it if someone else was put in charge of taking care of him. The brunette was sort of looking forward to teaching Gaara things too.

It just seemed like so much was going to happen now.

Neji had to admit that maybe he was a little over excited. But that was natural wasn't it?

Pushing the door to the hospital open with his foot, Neji wandered inside to find Tsunade. Once he was there however, he was surrounded by guards who didn't seem to understand that he wasn't here to hurt her again. When he explained that however, they merely pulled him and Gaara into the room Tsunade was recovering in, still keeping him a good distance away.

Lady Tsunade looked fit to murder him.

"What are you doing here. You should be confined to your rooms and the Uchiha's laboratory."

"Yes, but this is important."

He said thickly, moving his arms so that she'd notice the boy he'd brought with him. She took the hint. And when she did, she ordered the guards out immediately.

"How?"

"We're not sure. Sasuke's machine just started piecing him together when he put in Gaara's back up discs."

Neji explained, hoping that would be enough.

"I see."

She said, keeping her eyes focused on Gaara. Who was staring right back at her, as if they were having a staring competition.

"I guess you think this solves everything, don't you Hyuuga?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just because you got your precious computer boy back, doesn't mean your going to be let off easy. You will still be confined to your rooms as well as Sasuke's, because he is still going to look after you. However I will allow you back into the cafeteria, so you can inform Shikamaru and Sakura of this new installment."

She stated. Neji was finding he didn't much care about his confinement anymore. So long as she didn't take Gaara from him again. Yes, he still blamed her for that.

"Secondly, Gaara is not going to be your flying partner again until I have physical proof that he still knows how to fly a plane. If he can't, when the time comes for him to be tested, you will get a new partner."

Neji frowned at this comment. He hadn't actually thought about Gaara not remembering. The redhead in question, was giving him little encouragement. He merely stared off at one wall with a pondering look on his face, as if he was trying to remember if he actually knew what a plane was.

"Lastly, he will be in your care. You will teach him to walk and move, since it doesn't look like he can, and you will cater to him. He is your responsibility, so if he gets in trouble, it's your fault Hyuuga."

The last remark was rather harsh, but really, she couldn't be blamed for wanting to make Neji's life harder.

"I'll send Sakura to you tomorrow. Inform her that she will be showing Gaara around this half of the ship, fitting him for a standard uniform, and that she is to eat with the two of you in your rooms. Is that understood?"

Neji nodded.

"Good, now leave!"

She sounded exhausted, so Neji decided it would be best not to test her, and left the room quietly. He and Gaara headed back to Neji's small little apartment like room, and on the way there, the redhead fell asleep in his arms.

------------

Gaara woke feeling sore. At least, that's what he assumed aching muscles and tightness meant. It took him a few seconds after he'd opened his eyes to realize what had happened the night before. When it did, his hands shot up in front of his face, he had to make sure they were real. Then a series of checks were done, all of them pointing to one conclusion.

Gaara sat up and looked down at his bare chest and stomach, then down at the sheets covering his new legs. He'd never had legs before, ever. Only his top half had ever been displayed on the screen in Neji's jet.

His head turned quickly from side to side as he took in, first the bed he was laying on, then the rest of the room. This obviously, was not the small enclosed space he'd grown familiar with.

This was bigger. A small kitchen lay off to the side, with barely enough walking space for one person to fit behind the counter. The bathroom was just passed that, at the end of the hall on his left. To his right he was faced with a living room. There was the couch against the same wall as the bed was, and a TV and coffee table in front of that. From where he was, Gaara could see a huge wall of windows just on the other sided of the living room, looking out at the stars that glinted in the sky like shattered glass.

That at least, was a sight he was used to.

"Good morning."

Gaara jumped slightly, Neji was sitting on the couch, seemingly just watching him. He was completely dressed and looked as if he'd been up awhile. His dirty breakfast plate sitting in front of him on the coffee table.

"This is real isn't it?"

"Knew it'd eventually sink in. Yes, this is where I live. And now it's also your home, until they give you your own."

Gaara wondered what was on Neji's mind when the smug smile faltered slightly.

"I have a body then."

"Yes, good job."

"Shut up Hyuuga!"

Gaara glared at the now laughing boy who'd just made fun of him. He was glad nothing between them had changed all that much at least. They still fought like children, which was kind of relieving.

"I'm hungry too you know."

Gaara stated, nodding his head at the already empty plate Neji had in front of him.

"Oh! Right, sorry…"

Neji cleaned up his plate and walked quickly passed Gaara into the kitchen. The red head finding it slightly satisfying to see the boy jump like that.

"Sakura will be here soon. She's going to bring by a wheel chair so she can show you around… um… You'll be getting clothes of your own today too… you can borrow some of mine if you want, um…How'd you sleep?"

Gaara had to try hard not to laugh at how nervous Neji was.

"I slept fine. Not sure how it happened though."

"You must have been tired. Being created probably isn't easy. Of course you'd be tired."

Gaara nodded, even though Neji couldn't see him. It made sense as to why he'd been tired, but he'd never slept before, not like humans did. So how had he slept? Was it just as simple as laying down and closing your eyes?

Gaara made sure Neji wasn't looking when he lay back down to test that theory. He didn't end up falling asleep again though. So instead he just sat back up.

"Not so simple."

He muttered to himself, missing the small smile that crept over Neji's face.

When breakfast had been made and set in front of Gaara. He just stared at it, realizing another problem he'd have.

He'd only ever imagined what it would be like to eat food. He'd copied what he thought was normal when he'd eaten digital food, but this was real. If he could lift his arm, he would have poked at it just to feel the different textures. Neji picked up a spoon and started getting ready to feed him. Gaara panicked.

"Wait!"

"What's wrong?"

"I don't… I don't know how to…"

"Oh."

Neji chuckled, much to Gaara's annoyance, and then started to explain.

"Take this in your mouth, and swallow, but don't breath when you do or you might inhale it and choke yourself…. Uh… Oh yeah!"

Neji had never had to explain this sort of thing before, he imagined it was the same thing you had to do with children.

"When you eat something that isn't liquid. You'll have to chew, or you could choke yourself that way too. I thought maybe soup would be better first, you know, so you don't have to bother learning to chew right away. Just get used to swallowing."

"Considerate of you, but is eating always this dangerous?"

Gaara asked blankly, determined to get this right the first time so he wouldn't have to experience the choking.

"Not always, I just wasn't sure how to explain it to you, but now that I think about it. Guess it does sound a little menacing. Guess it just takes practice."

Gaara nodded and opened his mouth, waiting for Neji to get the hint. When the soup was in his mouth however, he forgot about the breathing part and tried to swallow, a little going down the wrong way, leading to some hard sort of pressure pushing up from his chest and making him cough.

Neji patted his back gently until he was finished, eyes watering slightly.

"What kind of torture is this?"

Gaara hissed, clamping his mouth shut so Neji couldn't feed him again until he was ready.

"It's not meant to be torture. We need nutrients and that's just how we get them, otherwise our bodies wouldn't work right. We'd be tired all the time and eventually it's really painful NOT to eat."

Neji said apologetically.

That sounded even worse to Gaara then choking. Because it sounded like a more gradually growing pain, then the sudden coughing he'd just survived.

"Feed me then, I suppose."

"Your adorable."

Neji laughed, getting ready to feed the redhead a little more. Gaara had been wondering why the boy kept laughing at him, but now that he knew it was because Neji thought he was being cute. It just made his cheeks burn and his bottom lip stick out just a little more to form a pout.

By the time Sakura came knocking at the door. Gaara had managed to make it through the bowl of soup, only choking himself twice more. That felt like such an accomplishment, so much so that he was smug the entire time he was wrapped in blankets and placed in a rolling chair.

The first thing he noticed about Sakura, was that her hair was a much more vivid pink then he remembered. She was also a lot louder. He'd been able to set a certain volume he heard her through in the jet, but life didn't have a volume adjustment.

The two of them went to the seamstresses room first, with Sakura talking about how excited she was for him the whole way there.

Things just got more tedious when they got there however and he was met with Ino, the girl that had been put in charge of the fashion and uniforms worn on the ship. She was blonde, so much worse then Naruto had ever been, when he was human. And she was touchy.

He had to endure a good two hours of measuring and designing before the girl even layed his new uniform down on a wide metal table. It took less than two seconds for her to pull the lever down afterward, dropping a big metal block down onto the uniform. When she lifted it back up, the uniform had been closed up on the sides and pressed seamlessly together.

When Ino turned it right side out again, Gaara just stared. So much for regulation, this thing looked nothing like the uniform Neji had been wearing back in the room, which had been a pair of tighter grey pants and a white shirt and blazer to go over it.

No, this was different.

This was a pair of tight light blue pants that hugged his legs until they reached his calves and flared out. A white blazer like Neji's was added to it, but this was had a tail in the back that fell down to the back of his knees, and sleeves that were almost as long. The collar was normal at least, and so were the fasteners that held the front closed. Gaara wasn't given anything to wear underneath.

The scary part was that Ino and Sakura had practically mauled him when they dressed him.

Gaara was relieved when he was finally pushed out of the room in his chair. He'd been given not only the uniform he was wearing, but also several other outfits that Ino had deemed worthy of him. They'd squealed like girls, claiming how cute he was. Now he had three sets of pajamas, two daily uniforms, two flying uniforms since those were made from different material, seven sets of underwear, and three pairs of boots that matched everything. Apparently his colors were white, light blue, and light green. Mostly in pastel colors.

The rest of the tour was just a blur. He remembered the hanger where all the planes were, but of course, his red one wasn't among them, and he remembered the cafeteria, where Sakura had picked up lunch for the three of them.

Other than that, his brain just felt numb.

Who knew being around women could be so tiring. He was pretty certain that no matter what Neji said, food would not have helped him with this feeling. He just wanted to sit down with Neji, who he was very much missing now that he'd had to deal with Sakura, and talk about something other than hair, clothes, makeup, and boys.

* * *

I'll continue this chapter in the next update... hope you like it!


	8. Rehabilitation Part II

**Chapter 8: Rehabilitation Part II**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

* * *

Previously on Impervius AI

He'd only ever imagined what it would be like to eat food. He'd copied what he thought was normal when he'd eaten digital food, but this was real. If he could lift his arm, he would have poked at it just to feel the different textures. Neji picked up a spoon and started getting ready to feed him. Gaara panicked.

"Wait!"

"What's wrong?"

"I don't… I don't know how to…"

"Oh."

Neji chuckled, much to Gaara's annoyance, and then started to explain.

"Take this in your mouth, and swallow, but don't breath when you do or you might inhale it and choke yourself…. Uh… Oh yeah!"

Neji had never had to explain this sort of thing before, he imagined it was the same thing you had to do with children.

"When you eat something that isn't liquid. You'll have to chew, or you could choke yourself that way too. I thought maybe soup would be better first, you know, so you don't have to bother learning to chew right away. Just get used to swallowing."

"Considerate of you, but is eating always this dangerous?"

**-Rehabilitation Part II-**

When Gaara left with Sakura, Neji stood at the door waving for the next five minutes, even though they'd disappeared long before that. He just wasn't sure what else he had to do, and now that Gaara wasn't in the room with him, the apartment felt even lonelier then it had before.

Turning back from the door, Neji sighed and decided to make himself busy making the bed and washing the small amount of dishes in the sink. He never needed to use the dishwasher, seeing as he was the only one living there, so it'd just become the place he left dishes to dry. Now was no different.

When that was finished, he cleaned the counters, vacuumed the carpets, carried all the laundry down to the laundry rooms, and sat there to wait for them to finish so he could take them back and fold them. Honestly, Neji couldn't think of anything better to do while he waited for Gaara to come back.

He didn't exactly have anything planned for when the boy did return, but it had be more exciting then staring at his uniforms as they spun around in the high speed washers.

By the time he got back to the small room he lived in, only an hour and twenty minutes had passed since Gaara had been wheeled away. And he felt oddly pathetic. He was acting like he'd never survived without the boy before.

He was having redhead withdrawals.

That sounded even more pathetic though, so Neji did the only other thing he felt like doing, and left to go hunt down his predictable best friend. The brunette wandered down the halls toward the lab Sasuke usually never left, taking a few turns to get there before inviting himself inside. The raven was there, like Neji had predicted, but he wasn't alone.

About five other men were there, helping Sasuke test more things out on his precious machine. The door that led from the office to the lab, which was usually left open for Naruto to wander back and forth, had been shut and locked from the inside.

Neji wasn't used to that, but Naruto didn't seem to be either, and from the looks of the poor cat, he wasn't enjoying this new twist in his little life.

The poor little thing was meowing and rubbing up against the door, trying to get Sasuke's attention. Which, Neji knew, wasn't going to happen. He opted for sitting on the floor and watching Naruto.

The blonde noticed him after a few seconds of meowing and pacing, and looked at him. His little paws scratched at the door for a minute before the turned his head back to Neji in one of those cat looks that spoke volumes.

'Help me open this damn door!'

Neji laughed at the tortured look in those big blue eyes.

"It's locked, I can't open it either."

Naruto ignored him again with the cat equivalent of an eye roll and stood up on his back legs to try and paw at the door handle. Neji automatically felt bad for him. Sasuke obviously didn't want Naruto in there, in case they had to run different machines. The little thing could get hurt, or distract one of the men by rubbing up against them.

But Naruto wouldn't know that.

This was the first time he'd never been allowed to follow the raven. Neji could understand, and honestly, he'd probably do the same thing if Gaara locked himself in the bathroom or somewhere out of his reach. He'd worry too.

"Naruto if you want, you can come join Sakura, Gaara and I for lunch. I'm sure Gaara would love to see you!"

Neji said, hoping to distract the cat from worrying himself sick.

Naruto turned to look at him curiously, before running over to rub up against the hand he was holding out. That was the good thing about Naruto, he'd always been simple to distract and entertain.

Neji chuckled and picked up the purring cat, pausing slightly to see if Sasuke had even noticed he'd been there. It didn't look like it, and when he held Naruto up to the glass so he could scratch at the window and meow his good bye to Sasuke, the raven merely covered his ears and made sure not to look in the cat's direction as he talked to one of the other guys in the room.

That made Neji mad. He could at least have waved like he usually did when he was distracted and Naruto was leaving to wander the space station.

Poor little Naruto just looked dejected, and hung limply in Neji's hands as he carried the boy back to his rooms.

------------

Gaara was so excited to reach Neji's apartment that when Sakura pushed him through the door, he immediately started calling for the man. What he wasn't expecting, was for Neji to jump off the bed, where he'd been playing with something and run over to him. It was even more of a shock when the taller man picked him up and held him like he'd been gone for days.

"Miss me that much?"

"Of course I did…. You look different."

"Gee thanks! I was actually going for 'good' or maybe 'nice', but different is so much better!"

Gaara bit sarcastically, crossing his semi-mobile arms in front of him, which made Neji back off a little.

"Sorry, I just meant that wasn't the type of uniform I was expecting. It looks amazing on you though."

Gaara blushed looked down at the floor with a full on pout of embarrassment.

"Suck up."

He muttered, hearing Sakura laughing at them in the background as she folded up the wheelchair and set it against the wall by the door.

"I am, but more to the point. We have an addition to our lunch party, and he really wants to see you again."

Neji said aloud, carrying him over to the bed he'd been laying on before. Only now, Gaara could clearly see the small yellow kitty rolling upside-down on the bed. The sight made a smile spread over the redhead's face when he was set down next to the cute little cat.

"Naruto!"

He said excitedly, petting the little kitty's belly.

Naruto purred and then started to attack Gaara's hand, playfully nipping at the fingers that were tickling him. It took a minute to get his fingers free, but once he did, Gaara lifted Naruto up to his face and stared at him, waiting for the cat to actually notice him. When the little thing finally realized who he was, his eyes widened comically and he began licking Gaara's nose happily.

"It's good to see you too!"

Gaara giggled, setting Naruto down, just to have the little blonde rub up against his legs and purr some more.

"Sasuke was ignoring him, so I thought it'd be better if we played with him. You should have seen how depressed he looked."

Neji said quietly in Gaara's ear.

Gaara nodded in agreement, before turning back to play with Naruto again. It'd been a long time since he'd seen the little cat. They'd been good friends for years, and when Naruto had had his accident, that was one thing that hadn't changed.

------------

When everyone had eaten, and Sakura had left after saying good bye to the two of them, Neji began cleaning up the sandwiches and fruit they'd had, sticking whatever leftovers they had in the small kitchen fridge.

Over all, the experience hadn't been near as bad as he thought it'd be. Sakura had still talked constantly about the things she and Ino wanted to design for Gaara, most of which made Neji blush crimson, but he'd been able to block out most of that. Watching Gaara eat and play with Naruto was sort of a marvel for Neji.

He'd been so focused on watching that he hadn't noticed any of the times Gaara had given him funny looks of confusion.

The boy had just been so cute. He'd fed Naruto little pieces of turkey meat from his sandwich, and whenever he'd eat, Neji couldn't help but notice just how small each bite was. It made him smile, remembering earlier that morning.

Neji stood up from where he'd closed the fridge and looked over to where Gaara was petting a sleeping Naruto.

"Feel like trying to walk soon?"

He asked cautiously, not wanting to push the boy too hard.

"Sure, it'd be easier with Naruto asleep anyway. Can't imagine trying to learn with him running around my feet."

Neji smiled at that and moved over to the bed, catching hold of Gaara's outstretched hands and pulling him forward on to his feet.

From there, they spent a few minutes getting Gaara to take one step at a time. They didn't make it more then a few steps before the redhead collapsed on Neji in defeat.

"It's not possible, my legs are too stiff!"

The redhead complained, sitting down on the floor and folding his arms.

"No it isn't, you just haven't used them before. See, even your arms are moving better because you keep moving them. Lean back against the bed and I'll see if I can get your legs loosened up."

Gaara did as told and Neji leaned over to take hold of one of his small, bare feet. Massaging it between his fingers before he moved up to help Gaara bend his knee to his chest. Neji was rather clueless at this point of exactly what he was doing.

Gaara however, noticed immediately how close this action brought Neji's face to his own. His cheeks felt hot again and he frowned. He didn't want to be distracted by just how close Neji's elegant, yet firm, lips were to his own small ones. Even Neji's dark eye lashes veiling his unique eyes were distracting in their beauty.

"What's wrong?"

"You must be blind."

"We've had that discussion before, my eye color has nothing to do with what I see."

"That's not what I'm talking about."

Gaara watched Neji pull back from him and frown.

"Then I'm confused."

Gaara huffed in annoyance and pulled Neji's face back to his. So their noses were almost touching.

"Does this make you feel nothing Romeo?"

Neji stared at him for a minute before it sank in, and an obvious blush stained his cheeks.

"Oh."

"Yeah, Oh."

"Sorry…"

Neji looked down at the carpet between them, Gaara making him feel even more stupid by pointing that out to him. He'd been trying to focus on helping Gaara, he hadn't given much thought to what the other boy must have been thinking.

"God, don't apologize. It's not your fault I feel all warm and fuzzy when you get close to me and my head feels like it's full of cotton. I don't get why that is, but it's obviously not your fault."

Neji just stared blankly at him, not sure how to explain what that feeling might mean. He wasn't the best one to ask. Especially since he couldn't really explain it honestly without telling Gaara that said feeling meant you usually liked someone.

"Neji. Stop spacing out and kiss me already!"

"What?!"

"You're an idiot."

Gaara muttered, pulling the boy's lips to his own. He may have been clueless about everything else, but this was one of those things he'd been curious about and looked up on the internet during his non busy moments when he'd been an actual computer.

Threading his fingers through Neji's long, soft and temping hair, Gaara pulled away slowly.

"See, now I feel better. Help me stand up!"

"…"

Gaara took one look at the completely distracted, surprised, and hopeful look on Neji's face and burst into fits of giggles when Neji finally helped him up, the brunette's face going the color of Gaara's hair in embarrassment.

Gaara was certain now. Neji so liked him.

Naruto's little meow joined him in agreement, and they both looked down to see the small cat watching them from the edge of the bed with a mock innocent expression, his eyes completely alert.

Neji would have considered this the 'You are so busted! I saw that.' look. Which just made him duck his head and try to hide behind his hair when Gaara started laughing at him again. These two were seriously enjoying his pain.

* * *

Here's the second half of the Rehabilitation chapter!

Hope you enjoyed it...

Next time, more of the story will be revealed... Not just cute little scenes between Neji and Gaara...

Look forward to it!


	9. Through Cat Like Eyes

**Chapter 9: Through Cat-like Eyes**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

_Note: Sorry it's taken me so long to update this story. I've recently started college and been kind of busy._

Previously on Impervius AI

"Neji. Stop spacing out and kiss me already!"

"What?!"

"You're an idiot."

Gaara muttered, pulling the boy's lips to his own. He may have been clueless about everything else, but this was one of those things he'd been curious about and looked up on the internet during his non busy moments when he'd been an actual computer.

Threading his fingers through Neji's long, soft and temping hair, Gaara pulled away slowly.

"See, now I feel better. Help me stand up!"

"…"

Gaara took one look at the completely distracted, surprised, and hopeful look on Neji's face and burst into fits of giggles when Neji finally helped him up, the brunette's face going the color of Gaara's hair in embarrassment.

Gaara was certain now. Neji so liked him.

Naruto's little meow joined him in agreement, and they both looked down to see the small cat watching them from the edge of the bed with a mock innocent expression, his eyes completely alert.

Neji would have considered this the 'You are so busted! I saw that.' look. This just made him duck his head and try to hide behind his hair when Gaara started laughing at him again. These two were seriously enjoying his pain.

**-Through Cat-like Eyes-**

Naruto woke up the minute he felt Gaara's hand disappear from where it'd been petting him. It took him a minute to get up again but he was able stretch and roll back over on to his feet so he could hunt down his best friend again. He didn't have to look far.

Naruto's big blue eyes gazed up from the bed covers and he noticed the only other two people in the room were standing. Neji looked like he was trying to help Gaara walk. Watching curiously, the two disappeared from view as they sat down on the floor, Naruto crawling quietly over the bed so he could look down over the edge and find them.

What he saw though, made him grin smugly on the inside.

He'd always known the two had a thing for each other. Every time he'd run into the jet hanger to visit Gaara the two of them would be bickering like they were married, or the redhead would be watching Neji work, with that special look in his eyes.

Naruto was occasionally wrong about things, or sometimes there were things he didn't know, but he was always observant. Even more so now that he'd been turned into a cat, because he couldn't talk to anyone and had to make gestures to get what he wanted. Being a cat also made it hard to focus on what he was doing. Before he'd been easily distracted, now he couldn't stick with anything at all.

The little yellow cat situated himself on the edge of the bed when the two stood up again, putting on a kitty like face that he knew made Neji feel embarrassed.

His "I so know what you just did!" face.

He'd done this same face several times before. Most of the time it was when he'd caught Neji standing outside of his jet spying on Gaara.

Deciding he'd been there long enough, Naruto made his way out of the room, leaving only a small opening behind after he'd pawed the door open. People knew better then to close their doors completely when they were friends with Naruto. Even Sakura and Shikamaru left theirs cracked a little.

Skittering down the hall, Naruto looked both ways and slipped into the empty corridor, running happily back to the lab to see Sasuke.

He was already convinced that that morning hadn't actually happened.

But when he got back to the lab, he noticed that the door was left open a lot wider than he usually left it. The way Neji usually left it. Naruto slipped inside and looked around the office again. Nothing had changed. Even the door was still firmly locked between him and Sasuke.

Jumping up onto the counters lining the room, Naruto skittered over to the observation window that Sasuke had had put in for him. The little blonde had always, human or not, liked to watch Sasuke when he worked. Today was different.

Instead of enjoying the view, he had to make sure he view was still there.

Sasuke could easily have thrown a blanket over the window or even just disappeared from the lab all together. Luckily though, none of this had actually happened. Naruto could see into the lab still, but the fact that all the same men were still there with his Sasuke didn't help to make him feel any better.

He was depressed again.

Giving up hope that Sasuke was going to come out, Naruto went and curled up in his little cat bed that Sasuke had put in front of the window for him long ago. One small nap couldn't hurt. Something told him that even when he woke, Sasuke would still be there.

-------------

Sasuke yawned, stretching his sore back as he got up from his lab chair. He and a small portion of the scientific community on the ship had made one major break through after another the day before. But he'd been so exhausted when they'd left that he'd merely fallen asleep where he was sitting.

He'd come to understand the machine a bit better. Anything that was put inside alive died, because the machine couldn't take it and would immediately explode anything that was giving it a hard time. Secondly, not only did it reanimate the organism inside, but it also reconstructed it. Much the same way it had made Gaara.

Making things out of nothing.

That's what the machine did. Sasuke and the other men he'd been working with had been trying to stop the machine from exploding all night. Even one bit of living cell like a bit of skin made it act up.

So far they hadn't been able to fix it.

Standing up, Sasuke made his way out of the lab and into his office, checking his watch to see what time it was. 12:30.

Smiling to himself, Sasuke dashed out of the room and toward the cafeteria. He knew Neji would be there and he just had to tell him all the new things he'd discovered about the reanimation machine.

Even if the boy didn't understand him half the time, he still had to share his excitement with someone.

-------------

Naruto was startled awake a few minutes later. Someone was trying to pick him up.

Sasuke never picked him up without his approval because even though he was a cat, the raven still said he was human on the inside. You didn't just pick your friends up and carry them around unless they said it was okay. So who was touching him?

Naruto started to wiggle around and struggle, not quite being able to see who was behind him. Then suddenly, he was turned around and some brown haired, brown eyed man was looking back at him. He was the least impressive person Naruto had ever seen. He was of average height, kind of skinny, and was wearing glasses.

This must have been one of Sasuke's scientist friends.

Naruto had never liked them and Sasuke knew it.

He continued his wiggling and try to claw the man, but he was being held too tightly and much to far away to do any damage.

"Stop squirming you stupid thing!"

The man hissed.

"I just wanted to ask you something."

Naruto looked at the man, still not quite trusting him.

"Would you like to help me test something?"

The blonde was being carried into the lab now, the door having been left open when Sasuke had run off to the cafeteria.

"See, Sasuke won't let me try anything larger than a mouse in that machine of his. But I think it'd work better with something larger inside of it. I believe the creature inside would be far too substantial for the machine to explode, and therefore it would work."

Naruto caught the words 'mouse' and 'explode'. Those two things in one sentence did not equal good in his brain. And once again, he started trying even harder to get out of the arms of the man holding him. He even started to yowl in terror.

No, he did not want to help this man with anything.

Especially not an exploding machine.

The man wouldn't give way though, and Naruto was practically thrown inside the machine, the dome covering the top so he couldn't get out again.

"Just calm down. You want to help Sasuke don't you?"

Naruto could barely hear the man with the thick sheet of glass between them. He heard well enough though, and started meowing as loud as he could, pawing the glass ferociously. There was no way he was going to believe that Sasuke wanted him dead just for an experiment. He'd always meant more than that. Until this machine started working.

The blonde doubted his raven master lately, but he was damn sure he did not want to be inside this machine with some creepy man looming over him.

If he had to, he'd run off and stay with Neji and Gaara. They'd at least pay attention to him.

----------------

Sasuke smiled, pulling Neji after him.

He'd been so excited when he'd told Neji what he'd done, that he was convinced the boy needed to see it as well. So he'd pulled the brunette out of the room and down the hall toward his lab. Gaara was following them with Sakura, the other person who'd been with them when he'd abducted Neji.

When they got close to his rooms though, Gaara grabbed Sasuke's arm and pointed at what he already knew, was his door.

"Can't you hear that?"

He asked quietly. Sasuke listened, heard a small noise, and then listened for real. He could hear some seriously distressed meowing. Was that all?

"It's probably just Naruto. He does that when I forget to feed him."

Sasuke said randomly.

"I don't think so Sasuke, I think there's someone in there."

This time it was Neji telling him to pay more attention.

"I hear speaking."

The pilot said. And Sasuke could hear it to. He just didn't see what the problem was. Pushing open the door to his rooms, Sasuke walked over to his lab and walked inside. He was slightly surprised to see one of his work partners there.

"Hue, you're here early."

He said blankly, confused.

The man spun around as if he'd done something wrong, and pressed himself up against the glass of his reanimation machine. All the man had to do was ask him if he'd wanted to use it that badly.

"Nothing really, just a few harmless tests."

Sasuke could clearly see something was not right about this. Hue had started pushing buttons on the machine behind his back. The little beeps were rather obvious.

"What tests?"

Sasuke moved forward a few steps and the man bolted, trying to get passed Sakura and Neji, who were blocking the door and not letting him out.

Knowing something was obviously wrong, Sasuke removed the dark cloth covering from on top of the machine and looked inside. Naruto's wide blue eyes were staring back at him in fear and Sasuke was immediately angry. He started pressing more buttons on the machine, trying to get it to shut down before anything happened and reset itself.

"What were you trying to do?"

Sasuke yelled angrily, not looking away from his work.

"I just wanted to see if it would work with a bigger animal inside, and you happened to have one. I didn't think you'd miss it, I didn't even know you had a cat until today."

Hue made a fair point, but that didn't make Sasuke feel any better about ignoring Naruto. He knew it was bad when he'd tried to block the blonde out the afternoon before, but he'd felt like he was on some serious break through and hadn't wanted to be disturbed.

Sasuke was starting to sweat. He'd been doing everything he could, but Naruto had crouched down inside the dome and was just sitting there, eyes half lidded and cloudy. He probably wasn't getting enough oxygen and Sasuke needed to get him out before he suffocated.

A moment too late, Sasuke looked up.

Naruto's little paw was pressed against the glass and he was looking up at Sasuke with sad eyes. The raven had never liked those eyes. He pressed one of his fingers up against the dome on the other side, where Naruto's little paw was pressing against the glass.

"I'm getting you out."

He said quietly. Naruto did nothing but stare and him and meow one more time.

Sasuke didn't understand until after that Naruto hadn't believed him, because right at that moment his mind was focused on the machine, which had started to have a fit, rocking back and forth and making sickening grinding noises. Then just as quickly as it had started, the machine stopped moving.

It went completely quiet, even the soft humming of a machine that's been turned on, had stopped.

Sasuke looked up from the buttons, hearing Sakura scream behind him as bits of Naruto's fur and blood splashed up against the glass.

He couldn't hear anything after that, everything and everyone had gone silent as the glass around the machine shattered, Naruto's small orange collar hitting the floor in front of Sasuke's feet, bits of yellow gold fur still clinging to it.

* * *

There you go... I finally got unbusy enough to update...

Hope you liked it!


	10. Guilt

**Chapter 10: Guilt**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke

Previously on Impervius AI

"I'm getting you out."

He said quietly. Naruto did nothing but stare and him and meow one more time.

Sasuke didn't understand until after that Naruto hadn't believed him, because right at that moment his mind was focused on the machine, which had started to have a fit, rocking back and forth and making sickening grinding noises. Then just as quickly as it had started, the machine stopped moving.

It went completely quiet, even the soft humming of a machine that's been turned on, had stopped.

Sasuke looked up from the buttons, hearing Sakura scream behind him as bits of Naruto's fur and blood splashed up against the glass.

He couldn't hear anything after that, everything and everyone had gone silent as the glass around the machine shattered, Naruto's small orange collar hitting the floor in front of Sasuke's feet, bits of yellow gold fur still clinging to it.

* * *

**-Guilt-**

Gaara couldn't believe it. With everything that had been going lately, the redhead had never seen it coming. It pissed him off. He hadn't felt like this as an actual human yet and he was finding that emotion in humans was at least ten times stronger than it was in a computer. Artificial Intelligence or not. He wanted to scream and hit someone. No, not just anyone. He wanted to hit Sasuke. This was entirely his fault in Gaara's eyes and no amount of reason was going to convince him otherwise.

Sakura was screaming in the background and crying hysterically which was adding to the growing anger he was feeling. Even Neji's zombie-like shock was making him angry.

If Sasuke hadn't have ignored Naruto the way he had.

If Sasuke had been watching his so-called friends.

If Sasuke hadn't been so intent on fixing his precious machine.

There were so many things Gaara was blaming the raven for right about now. Sure he himself had been a little distracted flirting with Neji. But Sasuke was the one at fault for ignoring the blonde to begin with.

"How could you?!"

Gaara growled, tears pricking the corners of his eyes.

"You should have been paying more attention! Instead of FUCKING YOUR GOD DAMN MACHINE night and day!"

Gaara was too far gone to care that his voice was cracking between growling and yelling. It wasn't escaping Neji's notice though.

Neji hadn't seen Gaara angry since the transformation. He hadn't seen much of the boy's emotions at all. Sure there was the occasional irritation and smugness, but nothing so strong. The anger was making Gaara seem far more mechanical then he'd ever seemed to Neji before. It was more than a little worrying.

As much as Neji was trying to focus on the grief everyone was feeling, he couldn't bring himself to care enough.

What if Gaara broke down? How the hell was he supposed to fix that?

Looking around for something to do, Neji noticed that the murderer had fled and quickly sent a message to Tsunade through the intercom in the room. Hanging up on her before she could get pissed and start yelling at him for disturbing her.

At least the man would be found and stopped before he could take a shuttle back to earth. That was all Neji could do right about then.

"This is ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

Gaara screamed, completely ignoring the fact that Neji had woken up and was moving around. That wasn't his concern right now. Moving over to the machine, Gaara picked up a handful of glass and chucked it as hard as he could at Sasuke while he screamed at him. This emotion called grief mixed with anger. Was definitely too much for his new brain to process. Most babies went through years of life before they learned to process this emotion. Gaara hadn't so his brain did the only thing it knew how to do.

Overload- which left Gaara screaming and throwing other pieces of machine at Sasuke.

And

Shut Down- This was the part that Gaara hadn't been expecting. One minute he was throwing things and causing serious problems for the guards who, hearing the commotion from out in the hall, had run in to detain him. The next minute he completely froze. All motion stopped and his arms went rigid as he collapsed. His face and eyes going blank indicated that he was no longer working. This was what made Neji start throwing a fit as he and Gaara were lead out of the room.

-------------

Sasuke had been numbly standing by his now ruined machine throughout this entire ordeal. It wasn't until silence had finally washed over him as everyone left that it hit him. The extent of his love for Naruto had been so strong, he just couldn't believe he was gone. And now that he was alone, the realization was catching up to him.

Gaara had been right in blaming him.

Sasuke felt like it was all his fault. He had known he was ignoring Naruto, and yet he'd still done it. He'd been aware that Naruto was upset, but he hadn't cared enough to fix it.

And now the love of his life was gone.

Sasuke picked Naruto's collar up off the floor and carried it with him into his office, locking both the door to his lab and the door to the hallway and the rest of the ship. He was going to sit in his office until he rotten away into nothing like he deserved.

The pain Sasuke felt, stayed with him into the next day until he was finally feeling okay enough that he could cry. Of course once he started crying, he didn't stop.

Tsunade found him that way three days later. Crying in a pitiful heap on the floor with Naruto's collar clenched in his hands. He was a mess. Sasuke hadn't bothered to eat since he'd locked himself in his office. He hadn't changed or showered or even moved. He was still covered in blood, fur, cuts, multiple bruises, and shattered glass shards. He just didn't care. Why would his health matter at a time like this?

Tsunade seemed to think otherwise though and sent a team in to clean up the mess that'd been left in his lab.

Sasuke himself was taken away to be watched over in the psych ward of their on board hospital with nothing but the little orange collar left to remind him of his stupidity. The blonde captain of the ship had tried to take that from him too, but seeing as it was Naruto's, she just hadn't had the heart to put up a real fight for it.

-------Flashback------

"Hey Sasuke! Guess what?"

"I'm busy Naruto."

"SO! Guess what?"

"What?"

"I love you!"

Naruto's big blue eyes crinkled in a smile that lit up the boy's entire face.

"I love you too."

Sasuke couldn't help but say it back. The raven didn't think he'd have been able to hold it in even if he'd wanted to. Naruto had the tendency to get you to do and say things you usually wouldn't. That was part of what Sasuke loved about him. Actually, Sasuke loved everything about him.

Who wouldn't?

They'd been together for over a year now, but it still felt like they had just gotten together. Sasuke felt that way a lot around Naruto. The boy had a way of making him feel young, happy and alive.

"We're going out to train in the jets today!"

"Are you now? Isn't that a little soon?"

"No! We've been in the Academy for two years now Sasuke. Two whole years! All I've been training for this whole time is to become a pilot. Where have you been?"

Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"I don't know, I guess my school work has kept me preoccupied."

"Same old Sasuke. Always has his nose in his little chemistry book. You're going to make one great scientist one day!"

Sasuke chuckled again.

"I suppose I might. You on the other hand, are going to be one reckless pilot."

"Hey! No fair! I complimented you."

"And I was very happy to hear it."

"Teme…"

"Don't be like that Ru. You do want your birthday present don't you?"

Sasuke looked up from his book in time to see Naruto's face light up with excitement before the boy jumped on him. Nearly knocking him out of his chair.

"You remembered!"

"Of course I did. I may not be as observant most of the time, but I've never forgotten your birthday before. You know that."

"I know, I just like that you remember. So what'd you get me?"

"Open it and see for yourself."

Sasuke watched as Naruto took the present and proceeded to tear off the wrapping from where he was still seated on Sasuke's lap. Naruto squealed in excitement and gave Sasuke one of the suffocating hugs he was known for.

"You got me a transmitting collar! It's even my favorite color!"

"Of course it is. I saw you looking at it when we went down to the shopping district on the second floor last week."

Sasuke still wasn't a hundred percent sure why his little blonde wanted a transmitting collar in such a bright, eye-catching orange, but this was Naruto. The blonde always wanted strange things.

"Now you'll never be able to get rid of me! I'll talk to you all the time now, especially when I'm flying."

"I wish you wouldn't."

"Nope. You got it for me, so now I'm going to use it. You'll just have to suffer Mr. High and Mighty Uchiha. I'll tell you every time I go into a dive or fly upside-down…"

Naruto knew just how much Sasuke hated flying. Even mentioning the word made him feel sick to his stomach. That was how he'd first met Naruto. He'd been on the transport ship the day before his first class started, puking his guts out in the bathroom. The blonde had found him and proceeded to keep him distracted the rest of the flight. They'd been inseparable ever since. It'd been two years since then and now they were dating. Almost everyone on the station knew about it. Everyone except Sakura. Naruto had long since stopped pretending to like her, but for some reason the pink-haired girl just wasn't catching on. If her constant attempts to get into Sasuke's pants was a give away.

-------------

Gaara had managed to have something that Tsunade informed him was called a mental break down. He'd been out for an entire day and then kept in the hospital for four more after that.

Neji had been there to nearly suffocate him the minute he did wake up though.

Tsunade had to pull him off and sit on him to keep him down.

Gaara couldn't help laughing at the thought of it. Neji had been so happy to see he was okay. It made Gaara feel horribly guilty.

Guilty for making Neji worry.

Guilty for being able to laugh about it.

Guilty for having been so hard on Sasuke.

In his opinion, it was still too soon for anyone to be laughing and he knew perfectly well now that it wasn't Sasuke's fault. Not really. The boy couldn't have known what was going to happen.

News had traveled fast around the hospital. Gaara had been bed ridden for the first three days after he'd woken and Tsunade had refused to let him leave. In retrospect, that had been a good thing. Because while he was there, the redhead had gotten to hear all about what was going on with Sasuke from some of the noisy nurses who hung out in the hallways outside of his room.

Sasuke had been in a state of grief ever since he'd been brought to the hospital. From what Gaara had understood. The boy was a wreck, covered in everything that had been thrown at him and exploded on him. And yet he'd refused to shower or wash his clothes. The raven hadn't done much of anything but sit and cry the whole time, according to the nurses.

Gaara had made a very big decision when he'd heard that.

Sasuke was no longer in his rooms. That meant Gaara had full access to that machine of his. It was broken, but only the glass had shattered. The redhead could have it fixed in no time if Tsunade's cleaning crew hadn't already done it.

Gaara was going to make sure it was done though.

Because Naruto just couldn't stay dead for long.

The world wasn't going to let him. Not just the world, but Gaara wasn't going to let him either. The boy was going to come back and he was going to come back right. Sasuke hadn't been able to transform Naruto back when he'd been a cat, but with even just one small strand of fur, Gaara knew he could do it.

He'd try a million times over if he had to.

Naruto meant the world to Sasuke, and this was how Gaara was going to apologize for being such an ass to the raven.

Gaara untangled himself from the sheets on Neji's bed and went over to the couch where Neji was asleep to kiss the side of the brunette's face. Pulling on an over sized robe to go with his girly pajama pants, courtesy of Ino, Gaara snuck out of the apartment and made his way through the quiet space station. Seeing as the lights in the hallways never turned off, it took him very little time to find Sasuke's lab.

The hard part came next.

Finding a part of Naruto he could use.

Gaara made his way into the unlocked lab and began searching. It was like nothing had even happened a week ago. The place was spotless. The glass on the machine had been repaired and all the extra little shards had been cleaned away. The inside of the machine had been wiped down too.

Gaara wandered back into Sasuke's office to see if he could find anything in here.

It took him all of two seconds to find Naruto's little cat bed. Sasuke had made sure nothing of Naruto's had been moved from its original place. There was enough hair on it for Gaara to be able to try as many times as he wished. The next thing he needed was Sasuke's notes. He didn't know jack about this reanimation machine.

Besides, every scientist kept notes.

Sasuke didn't disappoint.

He had his notes scattered all over a section of counter. Dating all the way back to the first time he'd started building the thing. Gaara found the section he wanted and started skimming through it. The guy had even written down each individual button he'd pushed when he'd created Gaara.

So thorough.

Even Naruto himself would have been able to work the thing. The boy had always been hopeless with buttons. His jet had always had very few in them. Everything had been made to fit his movements so that Naruto could actually fly his jet, back when he'd flown one anyway.

Now Naruto's muted orange jet was in storage. No one else had ever been able to figure out how to fly it.

Gaara had never had the privileged of seeing it before. He'd only ever heard these stories from Neji and seen the outside of it when he was sitting in the hanger or flying with it. It'd been so long Gaara couldn't even remember the actual shade of orange it'd been.

Shaking himself out of his daydream, Gaara got back to work.

Taking the notes and a few pieces of hair with him, he wandered back into the lab.

-------------

Neji yawned, sitting up on the couch.

He wasn't sure what had woken him, but one look at the clock told him it was only three o'clock in the morning. He almost went back to bed when he noticed that Gaara wasn't there.

Neji jogged around the apartment to make sure the boy really wasn't there before going off in search of him.

Where would the redhead go and this time of night?

Jogging down the halls past the cafeteria and the other rooms, Neji noticed the door to Sasuke's room had been left open. He walked in and noticed lights on it the lab area. Was Sasuke out of the hospital already?

Walking into the lab, Neji was greeted with a sight he never expected to see again. It made him smile. A pair of big blue eyes looked up at him when he entered and a bright smile was flashed his way before a finger was placed in front of the smiling lips in a silencing gesture.

Gaara was fast asleep on Naruto's lap a small smile on his face.

* * *

There we are... Chapter 10 of Impervius!

Hope you guys liked it!

Thanks to all of you for being so patient... I know it took forever... but there it is!


	11. Getting Up Again

**Chapter 11: Getting Up Again**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke…

Previously on Impervius AI

Neji yawned, sitting up on the couch.

He wasn't sure what had woken him, but one look at the clock told him it was only three o'clock in the morning. He almost went back to bed when he noticed that Gaara wasn't there.

Neji jogged around the apartment to make sure the boy really wasn't there before going off in search of him.

Where would the redhead go and this time of night?

Jogging down the halls past the cafeteria and the other rooms, Neji noticed the door to Sasuke's room had been left open. He walked in and noticed lights on it the lab area. Was Sasuke out of the hospital already?

Walking into the lab, Neji was greeted with a sight he never expected to see again. It made him smile. A pair of big blue eyes looked up at him when he entered and a bright smile was flashed his way before a finger was placed in front of the smiling lips in a silencing gesture.

Gaara was fast asleep on Naruto's lap a small smile on his face.

* * *

**-Getting Up Again-**

The next morning, Gaara couldn't wait to get up and head down to the hospital. Neji had made him get dressed and eat first, but after that, he'd run down to Sasuke's lab and made sure Naruto was fed and showered, which he was.

After that there was nothing to do but take the boy down to Sasuke.

Gaara didn't want the raven to have to suffer any longer, it just wasn't fair, and he was far too proud of himself to pass up the opportunity to see Sasuke happy again. Naruto seemed just as excited, though Gaara had to guess because the boy only meowed at him. The boy hadn't come out quite like new, but Gaara had done his best and only hoped Sasuke was happy with that.

Naruto looked completely normal if you ignored the blonde ears, tail and whiskers. That and he couldn't seem to speak normally anymore.

Neji walked the two of them down to the hospital and upon seeing the three of them, all the nurses squealed, a few of them showing them the way to the Psych ward while other's ran off in search of Lady Tsunade.

Gaara ignored them and followed the nurses.

It wasn't long before they were standing outside the door. Naruto didn't see any point in waiting. He pushed the door open and would have darted over to the boy if Gaara hadn't held him back.

Sasuke really did look horrible.

Naruto obviously saw this and started trying all the harder to get away.

"Mew!"

The blonde screeched, hands trying to grab at the Uchiha from where he was being held back in the doorway.

"I don't want another cat Neji."

Sasuke's voice sounded hoarse. He didn't bother looking up at them and kept his head down in his hands which had been wrapped from finger tip to elbow in bandages.

"You should know I can't handle that right now."

"We didn't bring you another cat Sasuke. I'm not that stupid."

Neji nodded to Gaara and the redhead let go of Naruto, watching as he darted across the room, landing flat on Sasuke's lap. The force was hard enough to send the boy back into the wall that the bed he was sitting on was up against.

Sasuke didn't really have time to see what hit him because in the next few seconds, Naruto was in his face licking his nose and cheek out of happiness. Gaara found it a little disturbing. There were times and places for that sort of thing, and here didn't seem to be one of those places.

Sasuke pushed the blonde away from him a little so he could figure out what was going on.

Gaara had never felt better at seeing the Uchiha smile so genuinely. He pulled Neji out of the room and the two of them headed back to their apartment to give the two some time alone.

----------

Sasuke pulled back from the ball of energy that was attacking him.

It hadn't made sense and having something so openly sitting on him was making him a little angry. He wasn't in the mood for this.

However his anger disintegrated upon meeting two happy blue eyes staring back at him.

"Naruto?"

"Meeew."

Sasuke laughed and wiped the near tears from his eyes as the blonde cuddled against him. He held Naruto like the world might end if he let go. He couldn't believe the boy was there, and looking someone like he had all those years ago. He was too happy to care that he must have looked like hell.

Naruto was alive.

"How'd this happen?"

He asked himself. Naruto seemed to think he was asking him, because he immediately pulled back and started moving around, reenacting the way he'd been brought back.

Indicating the hair on his tail, Naruto played with a little bit of the hair and then pretended to place an invisible hair down in front of him. He moved his hands and made little growling noises to indicate that something had covered the hair, and then his hands flew apart and his fingers stretched out.

"Boom!"

He said excitedly. Sasuke understood, which was somewhat of a great feat since 'boom' wasn't exactly the right word to describe the bone discs and tissue that had been strung together to make the boy. But Sasuke had understood what he'd meant. He'd made Gaara after all and knew exactly what the machine did.

He laughed and smiled at how cute the blonde looked while he was explaining.

"Who brought you back?"

Naruto grinned widely and moved his hair back, making a heart shape with his hands and placing it over the left side of his forehead.

"Mow!"

Sasuke shook his head and tried to keep from laughing.

Naruto was too cute for words.

"Your adorable you know that?"

"Mew?"

"Yes you."

Sasuke watched Naruto blush and nibble on the tip of his finger. He'd always had that habit whenever Sasuke showed affection for him. It just made the Uchiha want to squeeze the boy in a bear hug again.

Sasuke had forgotten how much he loved Naruto.

Now the redhead had given him a chance to find out again. It'd been too long since he and Naruto had really gotten to do much together. After the first year Naruto had been turned into a cat, Sasuke did everything with the cat perched on his shoulder, in his lab coat pocket, or following at his heels.

They'd slowly grown out of that stage though, much to Sasuke's displeasure.

He hadn't realized how much he'd enjoyed the boy around until he'd been taken from him in one of the cruelest ways possible.

He wasn't going to let that happen ever again.

----------

Over the weeks that followed, things started to calm down.

Tsunade had had a fit, seeing her nephew had been brought back from the dead and was more or less normal again. No one had really known how much she liked Naruto until then. She'd always been so stern with him and they'd often called each other names. The blonde had always been on the woman's nerves.

But it had been their way of showing they were family and loved each other.

Gaara had been fooled.

Sasuke had been moved back to his rooms, but he'd had nightmares every night until the machine in his lab had been moved. It'd been such a hard blow for him, he hadn't been able to set foot in his lab for the first week without getting flashbacks and breaking down.

The reanimation machine had been moved off into one of the storage rooms connected to Sasuke's lab so that no one else could tamper with it, but Sasuke didn't have to look at it either.

He never went in the storage areas anyway.

Naruto had been the one least fazed by everything that was going on.

He'd continued wandering around the space station, occasionally showing up with dead mice or spiders as presents for Sasuke. He'd also been one of the loudest people on board like he'd never actually been transformed and killed.

He'd show up at Neji's apartment and meow at Gaara for hours, telling him about his daily adventures probably.

Not that Gaara understood him.

Poor Neji had been the one stuck in the middle of all this. He'd been sent out flying to their neighboring ally station a few times to trade things, he'd been helping Sasuke get used to things again, and he'd been trying to get Gaara and Naruto onto a few of the training jets. He'd been so busy helping all of them that he hardly had time to do things with just Gaara.

Gaara himself, had also been busy.

He'd been sneaking off to the jet hanger early every morning and after Neji fell asleep to play around in Neji's new jet.

He was determined to learn what all the buttons did so that soon, he could go flying with the boy again, like they used to. The new red jet seemed to be made for the both of them and Gaara wanted to get off the station.

He'd been stuck there long enough.

When Neji wasn't busy, he'd take Naruto and Gaara out in some of the practice jets just to get them used to flying again.

More often then not, the two of them would end up crashing the padded simulation jets into each other. He knew perfectly well that it made Neji worry. The boy had been hoping Gaara remembered how to fly, but he seemed to be missing the key point, which Gaara conveniently never reminded him of.

Gaara had never flown a jet.

He'd been the jet. He remembered which chords had done what in their old plane and had flown according to the colored cords, not the buttons or steering controls. He'd never had to hook himself into the computer either just to communicate with people.

This was all new to him.

Gaara just never said anything to Neji. He pretended to be confused when in truth, Gaara was almost ready.

He was learning to fly with Neji.

Not the normal jets.

But the out of date one that he liked better, the one that Neji flew. That was all that mattered to him. Now if he couldn't fly that one, then there'd be something to be sad about.

Gaara wasn't the only one having problems though.

Naruto was also trying to re-learn everything. Not only had the boy been out of a jet for years, but he was just as hopeless with buttons and controls as he'd always been.

Late at Night, Naruto would often join him in the hanger and the two of them would play around in their designated jets. The blonde would sneak into storage and fly his old, muted orange jet out into the hanger so he could work on it.

The boy was amazing when he had the right plane.

The one that'd been adapted for him.

"I think it's time we headed back now. We've done as much as we can for one night."

Naruto nodded in agreeance with him and quietly backed his plane back into the storage area connected to the back of the hanger. The two of them had once again, spent most of the night preparing their planes.

Only this time it was a little different.

This time, the two of them were completely finished learning. They'd mastered their planes again and were ready to fly.

Nothing was going to bring them down again, and Gaara couldn't wait to see the look on Neji's face the next time the two of them flew together.

He'd be surprised.

The thought of the Hyuuga being too surprised to speak made Gaara grin sadistically.

----------

"Hyuuga, Naara, Haruno."

Tsunade greeted them as the three pilots bowed in front of her desk, waiting to hear what she had called them in for.

"We've received word from the Searin. They are practically on our doorstep and this time they don't plan of knocking."

Neji shivered. He hated the Searin.

"What are they after now?"

Tsunade sighed, knowing that none of them were going to like this.

"They are coming back for Gaara against the counsel's orders. They've been considered a rouge station and are not to be trusted any longer which means we need to be careful and be ready for them. There was a leak on our ship that apparently let slip that Gaara was still in working order. And that he had been made into a human."

"So their after the human and the machine that did it now."

Shikamaru looked a little worried, which didn't help Neji take the news any better. The Naara was the one that was supposed to be cool about everything. He was the rock that Neji held himself up on when he didn't like something he was hearing.

He couldn't afford to fall apart with the captain of his unit in the same room.

"What are we going to do?"

Neji asked quietly, wishing they could just take down the entire Searin station and be done with it.

"We'll have to fight them naturally. Taimun Station has been informed and they'll be here soon to aid us. We can't allow them to get their hands on our station's secrets. They are ours and there are still things we don't know about them. When they are perfected then our methods can be distributed to the other stations, but right now is not a good time."

Tsunade rubbed her eyes.

"How long before the redhead and the blonde are ready to fly."

"They're ready."

Neji lied, hoping his face was straight enough that she'd believe him.

The brunette pilot knew that they didn't have enough time to train Gaara and Naruto any longer. They needed everyone who could fly, out on the battle field. Neji just hoped he could cover for them and keep them from getting hurt.

Neji and the others were dismissed from their late afternoon meeting and he quickly ran back to the apartment to make sure Gaara was ready to go.

They only had an hour before they needed to be in the jets and ready.

Neji was getting scared all over again.

The last time this happened, he'd lost Gaara.

He wouldn't be able to survive that again. He wasn't strong enough. Once was bad enough, but twice was far worse then his own death would have been. Gaara had grown on him even more, now that the boy could be with him outside of the plane. They ate together, talked, watched movies and other harmless little things that made Neji's heart beat faster.

He couldn't lose that.

Not now.

* * *

For those of you reading Aishiteru Academy... the second book is up under Haku and Zabuza...

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

And for those of you wondering, the story is almost over... These next few chapters are going to be the finale...

-Himitsu


	12. Last Ones Standing

**Chapter 12: The Last Ones Standing**

Pairings: GaaraXNeji, NarutoXSasuke…

_Note: This is going to be the last chapter of Impervius AI… I hope everyone enjoyed it!_

* * *

Gaara felt the jet engine purring beneath the circuit board under his hands. He never got tired of feeling the excitement and adrenaline rush through him when the motor's vibrations hit his fingertips.

Today he was hardly able to pay attention to the feeling though. He, Neji, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Naruto had been ordered to the jet hanger as fast as they could have gotten there and Gaara's stomach wasn't happy about it. He hadn't actually gotten to eat before Neji dragged him out of the room and back to the hanger he'd just snuck out of.

The brunette pilot had explained things to him on the way there and Gaara didn't like what he'd heard.

The Searin fleet had decided that they no longer wanted to take orders and had taken themselves off the council that operated as a communication group between the stations. This meant that they could freely come after them this time and they could do whatever was necessary in order to obtain their objective.

Neji had avoided telling him exactly what they were after, but the tight grip on his hand and the way the other boy was walking so close to him told Gaara what Neji wasn't telling.

They were after him again.

But this time they knew Gaara was a person and were willing to kill him in order to get to him for experiments and testing. That and they were probably after the thing that had made him too, Sasuke's machine.

This meant that Sasuke would be a target too.

Gaara was pretty sure that by now, the enemy knew exactly what he looked like and what Sasuke looked like. They probably had maps of the entire station so they could get in, kill the scientist, and make off with his machine without having to be there too long. The redhead was convinced that the first time they showed up, that was the reason for it, to map out their routes through the station.

The adrenaline pumping through Gaara's veins wasn't from excitement.

Neji seemed to be feeling it too as he made his way around the jet doing a few quick checks on it. Gaara could almost hear the tension rolling off the other man. His breathing had been a little harder since he'd made Gaara sit down in the chair at the front of the cockpit. This wasn't doing the redhead any good. It was merely serving to make him worry more.

Gaara had been told that their allies were coming to their aid as well. The Taimun were the closest station and Gaara had flown there with Neji many times when he'd been part of the boy's jet. He'd heard many conversations and had decided that they were a group of rather nice, yet slightly dense people. They were more along the agricultural side of research and conservation science.

Where as Sasuke researched new materials for ships, new machines, medicines and those sorts of things, the Taimun researchers were seeing how many strawberries they could get to grow on one small patch of plant and whether or not they could be grown with lunar rock soil.

Gaara liked them. They grew the cherries Neji had been giving him all these years.

"I think we're ready for take off."

Neji said as he got back in the plain and buckled himself into the standing restraints near the back of the ship right behind Gaara's chair.

Gaara just nodded, not knowing what to say to ease the other boy's nerves.

Gaara started tapping a few of the buttons and images of each of their teams faces appeared on the screen in front of he and Neji. They were all pushed off to the side so Gaara could still see out through the windshield. He could see the little image of Neji putting his glasses on behind him, getting ready to steer the jet as they left. Naruto had a pair of glasses over his eyes as well, which were used to see outside the jet in all directions so you could see the other ships. Naruto was also wearing a special vest and gloves though, which no one else wore. These were supposed to be how he would fly his own ship. When he turned, the plane would turn, and when he moved his fingers, it would shoot missiles.

Shikamaru wasn't in his jet yet and Sakura looked like she was having a panic attack, making herself breath in and out. Gaara made sure to keep his face expressionless so on one would see how nervous he was.

"Ready, Gaara?"

"Ready."

Gaara saw Shikamaru strap himself into his jet right before the hanger began to open beneath them.

"When I give the signal, disconnect your cables and be ready to fight."

Gaara nodded at Shikamaru's little screen image and waited while the man put on his own glasses and started getting his ship fired up.

"Ready! Release!"

Gaara hit all the right buttons and felt, rather than heard, as the restraints let go of their jet and they dropped out of the hanger into the deep black of space. Gaara could see the rows and rows of Searin ships as he and Neji passed out of the hanger. They were just waiting there for them.

Gaara heard Neji inhale behind him and hold his breath. He could feel his own fingers begin to shake.

-------------

Sasuke couldn't take watching any longer.

He'd been up on the observation deck with all the other scientists and mere civilians, watching as jets flew over head, shooting at one another. Sasuke had seen one of their own get shot down over the station, the pieces of body and metal smashing against the observation glass as it exploded above them. The small speckles of blood over head would be forever branded in Sasuke's memory.

All he'd been able to think about was how happy he was that it wasn't Naruto.

He'd been against the idea of Naruto going back out in his jet so soon after starting up his flight training again. Sasuke hadn't thought he was ready, but as he'd watched them all fly out of the hanger, he'd seen Naruto's jet as one of the best out there. He'd have been proud if he wasn't so frightened.

The boy was all over the place, shooting here and there. He'd taken a little damage and every time, Sasuke's breath had stopped in his throat and he'd wanted to cry. Just watching had gotten him so shaken up that he'd made himself leave.

Sasuke was walking back to his lab in hopes of calming down a little when he noticed the door to his rooms was wide open.

He hadn't left it that way, and like a fool, he ran the rest of the way to his door in order to see who'd gone inside. This was such a foolish mistake. The minute he'd been inside the door, a pair of hands had grabbed him, covering his mouth and tying his hands behind him.

He only managed to struggle momentarily before he froze.

There were about twenty Searin men pulling pieces of his reconstruction machine out of storage and running them down to the ship they'd parked outside his lab. It looked like they'd blown a hole in the storage room and where wearing masks and suits in case the weak seal holding their plane to his wall gave way while they were transferring his things.

They'd even decided to take a few of the other machines out of his lab because they'd felt like it.

Sasuke was so angry he started fighting the man behind him again. It didn't do any good though. Instead he was held down over one of his desks and a breathing mask was placed over his face.

"It'd be a waist to leave such a pretty thing behind. Besides, we don't know how to work that machine. We'll decide if you're really needed after I'm finished playing with you."

Sasuke wanted to puke. The other man was so close to his ear, that Sasuke could smell the stench of sweat on him. The struggling he was doing made the other man laugh before he was pushed through the opening onto the foreign jet and tied to the back where he'd be out of the way, but still visible.

There was one thing Sasuke could do, even if he felt guilty for doing it. It was the only thing he could think of and he was surprised it'd taken him so long to remember.

Shoving his hands closer to the wall, Sasuke started smacking the back of his fingers lightly against the cold metal behind him, the ring on his finger making a dull clinking noise before it beeped just slightly. Then he started moving his hands so the rest of the ship would be visible to the camera he had implanted in his ring.

A few days ago he'd had a camera installed into his high school class ring that went straight to Naruto's jet screen. The blonde had insisted on it incase anything ever happened to Sasuke while he was out. He hoped it sounded enough like struggling that no one paid any attention to him.

This was one of those times, Sasuke knew it was.

Then he felt a hand raising him up off the floor where he'd been sitting and he forgot all about the small camera he'd just activated. The man who'd been holding him before had lifted him up and tied Sasuke's hands in front of him instead before shoving him roughly against the back of the ship and behind a few boxes so the other's wouldn't see.

"Ready for a little fun, boy? You're looking mighty fine with that gag in your mouth and your hands tied, bet your girlfriend would be upset if she knew where you were. You're such a nice piece of ass, she'd probably hate to lose you. Probably missing her little trophy man!"

That was punctuated by the man's hand on his ass and Sasuke knew he was in trouble. He began fighting twice as hard, kicking, clawing and elbowing when he found bits of body he could reach.

-------------

Naruto's jet skidded slightly to the side as he tried pulling a really fast u-turn while going about eighty miles an hour. It didn't matter if he was out in the air or on a road, he still drove recklessly. But when your boyfriend showed up on your screen with another man threatening to rape him, your own safety became the least of your worries.

The blonde forgot about the war and tried thinking about what he was going to do once he found the right side of the station, and hopefully, the ship his love was on.

All these years and Sasuke was still all Naruto cared about.

When Naruto found the small section of ship and located the carrier jet connected to it, he started shooting. There was no point trying to sneak up on them, he wasn't thinking about anything but kicking serious ass.

The man holding Sasuke on his screen had shoved the raven face first into a wall.

Naruto couldn't see where the man's other free hand was, but he knew it couldn't be anywhere good. He was the only one allowed to play bondage and rape with Sasuke, no one else.

Naruto had been waiting years to get Sasuke in bed again. He wasn't going to let anyone take his place.

Firing one of his missiles and watching it hit the front end of the enemy plane, the blonde rushed forward and started shooting again before he haphazardly latched onto the side and jumped out of his seat.

Every pilot on the station had been trained in the use on one weapon, their choice. This was just in case they were ever caught, they could still go down fighting. Naruto used his paint ball gun and slammed the butt of it against the handle to the other jet, breaking it so he could throw the door open and start pelting people. Tsunade had recently given him a small bag of tranquilizer filled paint balls to use, and he couldn't have been more grateful.

The first person he shot, was the man in the back when he entered, the one pinning Sasuke.

The man turned around to strangle who'd ever shot him, but the drugs took affect and he was down on the floor before Naruto could blink. The blonde felt a few sharp objects hit him as he ran to pick up a rather dazed and shaking Sasuke. He didn't give a shit if anyone else was still on the plane with them, his main focus was getting the raven out before people had time to realize they were really there.

It worked for the most part and Naruto slammed the doors shut between their jets before laying Sasuke on the floor and strapping himself back in to his restraints. He'd forgotten to take his glasses and gloves off through all that, so it took no time at all for him to pull away and start zooming as fast as he could away from everything.

-------------

Things were falling apart everywhere Neji looked.

The Taimun had done some damage, but it wasn't as much as they'd needed. The poor people just weren't cut out for fighting. They were peaceful and their station didn't have things like pilots unless they were just for transport.

They'd tried, which is what counted, but when most of them had started falling, he couldn't really blame them for running back to their station. A few had stayed to load up any fallen pilots they could, but other than that, their fleet was on its own.

Neji didn't expect the battle to end so suddenly though.

One minute, a missile was aimed at them, and the next, Neji had dodged, Gaara had activated their small shield, and the missile had bounced off them, to crash behind them into the station.

When one part of the station blew up, it caught the rest of it on fire and Neji suddenly realized that he'd have no home to go back to.

Tsunade was then shot right next to them and she too, disappeared with the Taimun flyers as they ran from the battle area in search of sanctuary. Neji was so distracted, watching as his home exploded little by little, that he didn't notice the Searin that had snuck up on them.

"We need to run Neji! Turn around!"

Neji jolted when he heard Gaara scream.

It took him a minute to realize why the boy was yelling at him. The entire side of their newly painted jet was peppered with little bullet holes and it was letting all the breathable air out. Neji had had a mask over his mouth and nose from the beginning, but Gaara didn't have one.

The brunette turned their jet and bolted after the bright orange jet they notice was flying off toward earth.

Neji pulled Gaara out of his seat and situated the boy in one side of his restraints, telling him to close his eyes and keep them closed until they hit the atmosphere around the earth. He spent the rest of their awkward flight alternating his air mask between he and Gaara.

Neither of them realized how happy they'd be to when they reached solid ground.

--------------

It had taken them the first few minutes to realize they'd landed before they were able to leave the jet and hunt their friends down. When Naruto and Sasuke had come out of their jet not more than twenty feet away, it was as a bleeding blonde and an unconscious raven.

Gaara had been shot too and that left Neji to try and fix them up.

They spent the next six months getting themselves situated in the small farm they'd landed on. It had been vacant and had for sale signs up every few miles. Sasuke was the only one who'd ever been back to earth on vacation to visit his brother while they'd been up on the station, so he was the only one not surprised, when their bank accounts came up full and almost equaling a million dollars.

Neji had never thought about how much he made, and he knew Sasuke, being a scientist, had always made more.

Gaara didn't have anything, but Naruto did.

When their funds had been pulled and the farm house remodeled so they could live in it, they still had more money left than they knew what to do with.

At first the four of them had just stayed in the house recovering from their wounds. Sasuke had taken almost two days to wake up after accidently being hit by one of Naruto's paint balls. The blonde's back had two bullets lodged up near his right shoulder blade and a shot had gone clean through Gaara's arm.

Once the six months of recovery had gone by and everyone was left with just the memory of the fight to go by, they were able to actually start profiting off the land they'd bought.

They'd had a barn built and had stocked it with cows, sheep and horses. They'd managed to hatch a few chickens in the coup they'd installed as well.

Sasuke had taken to caring for the horses and the cows while Naruto could easily be found harassing the chickens every day. Neji had taken care of the sheep while helping Sasuke with things like milking the cows and taking the horses out riding, but Gaara hadn't been all that interested in caring for the animals after the first week.

Neji assumed it was because one horse had kicked him, one of the sheep had bitten him, a cow had spit on him, and the chickens had chased him around the fields. The boy had, instead, started an actual farm with all different sorts of vegetables and fruit. He seemed to know a lot about growing plants, which he had later confessed to Neji, was because he'd done a little research on plants when they'd very first visited their Taimun friends together.

The four of them were happy with their new life.

They were amateurs at best, but they didn't care. It wasn't until another year later that they actually found out what had happened to the rest of the people on the station. Tsunade had sent them a letter explaining that a new station had been built, Shikamaru and Sakura were okay, and that if they wanted to come back, they'd always have a room ready for them.

They had declined, much to the woman's disappointment.

However a week later, Tsunade had sent a few of the Taimun farmers down to help them and give them tips. It made things on their farm a lot more profitable and the crops had started growing better than before.

By the next month they had a contract with Tsunade to supply fresh food to the new station, and Gaara had managed to get a fruit tree to start growing next to the house.

No one was surprised that by the following spring, the tree had started to bloom with little pinkish-white flowers that would later turn into cherries.

* * *

This really is the final chapter for Impervius AI... I was going to make it two, but they were too short on their own...

I hope you liked it and even if you didn't... thanks for reading!

-Himitsu


End file.
